Madrid – Iñaki Gabilondo, one of Spain’s most famous journalists, posted a video claiming that the New York Times stopped running syndicated political cartoons “under pressure by the mighty Jewish lobby.”

In a video message, titled “Very bad news”, Gabilondo claimed that the newspaper’s decision showed “the enormous power of the Jewish lobby in the United States” and the weakness of today’s print media, which “bows down [to the lobby].”

Gabilondo’s video followed the announcement by the New York Times that it would no longer publish daily political cartoons in its international edition after a cartoon depicting Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu as a guide dog wearing a Star of David collar and leading a blind US President Donald Trump wearing a kippah was published in its international edition. Following the incident., the newspaper ended its relationship with two contract cartoonists.

According to Gabilondo, the reason behind the ban had not been the antisemitic character of the cartoon, but that it “parodied the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu”, and that this had “worn out the patience of the Jewish lobby.”

The Federation of Jewish communities of Spain, the country’s EJC affiliate, denounced the video in a tweet, noting that it echoed the antisemitic tropes used by the dictatorial regime of Francisco Franco: “Iñaki Gabilondo resorts to the age-old antisemitic myth of the Jewish lobby. Just one step away from Franco’s Judeomasonic lobby conspiracy theories.”