The drawing, by one of Britain’s best-known cartoonists, was published on Sunday, as Britain observed Holocaust Memorial Day.

In a message on Twitter on Monday, Mr. Murdoch wrote that the work of the cartoonist, Gerald Scarfe, “has never reflected the opinions of the Sunday Times. Nevertheless, we owe major apology for grotesque, offensive cartoon.” The Sunday Times is normally seen as supportive of Israel’s security concerns.

The drawing showed Mr. Netanyahu holding a trowel and included these lines: “Israel elections. Will cementing the peace continue?” The wall in the cartoon was apparently a reference to the barrier Israel has built between itself and the West Bank.

Stephen Pollard, the editor of Britain’s Jewish Chronicle weekly newspaper, said in a BBC radio segment on Tuesday that the timing of the cartoon was “grotesque.” It reflected “the worst anti-Semitic blood libel,” which was common in cartoons in Arabic newspapers in the Middle East, he said.

But, appearing on the same broadcast, Steve Bell, a cartoonist for The Guardian, responded in a heated discussion that when Mr. Scarfe depicted President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in a similarly confrontational light there had been “not a squeak” of criticism.

The debate also spread to Israel, where columnist Anshel Pfeffer wrote on the Haaretz newspaper Web site: “Should The Sunday Times have not published the cartoon on International Holocaust Memorial Day? Only if one believes that is a day in which Israeli politicians have immunity from being caricatured.”

The criticism of The Sunday Times, a broadsheet, drew Mr. Murdoch’s newspaper holdings here into a new area of scrutiny after the months of scandal swirling around News International, the British newspaper subsidiary of News Corporation, after the phone hacking scandal that exploded in July 2011.

Since then, News International executives and journalists have been caught in an avalanche of criminal investigations and resignations. Some of Mr. Murdoch’s most senior former executives are set to stand trial later this year on a range of charges.

Mr. Scarfe’s work has appeared in The Sunday Times since 1967. In a message on his Web site, Mr. Scarfe said: “First of all I am not, and never have been, anti-Semitic. The Sunday Times has given me the freedom of speech over the last 46 years to criticize world leaders for what I see as their wrongdoings. This drawing was a criticism of Netanyahu, and not of the Jewish people: there was no slight whatsoever intended against them. I was, however, stupidly completely unaware that it would be printed on Holocaust Day, and I apologize for the very unfortunate timing.”

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the main representative body for British Jews, said it had complained to the Press Complaints Commission, the body by which British newspapers regulate themselves.

Like Mr. Pollard, the board said the cartoon “is shockingly reminiscent of the blood libel imagery more usually found in parts of the virulently anti-Semitic Arab press.”

Initially, The Sunday Times defended its decision to publish the cartoon, British news reports said, saying it was “aimed squarely at Mr. Netanyahu and his policies, not at Israel, let alone at Jewish people. It appeared yesterday because Mr. Netanyahu won the Israeli election last week.”

But Martin Ivens, the acting editor of The Sunday Times, said the newspaper would not countenance insults to the memory of Holocaust victims or blood libel, a term denoting medieval superstitions falsely accusing Jews of using the blood of children in rituals.

“The paper has long written strongly in defense of Israel and its security concerns, as have I as a columnist,” he said in a statement published by the Press Association news agency. “We are, however, reminded of the sensitivities in this area by the reaction to the cartoon, and I will, of course, bear them very carefully in mind in future.”

Mr. Ivens planned to meet British Jewish leaders on Tuesday to apologize in person for the cartoon.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/world/europe/murdoch-apologizes-for-grotesque-netanyahu-cartoon.html?partner=rss&emc=rss