Does a Subscription to Le Monde Bring You a Gift Laced With Antisemitism?

Eric Fottorino has an interestion offer: Should you think that a young person in your inner circle might be interested in the news cycle, the Directeur of Le Monde suggests you enter a new subscription for a weekly edition of France's newspaper of reference, which contains "a synthesis of the major events as seen by Le Monde" and — this is important — which will allow for the ability "to follow, to analyze, and to understand the French and international news cycle from Le Monde's viewpoint".

Gifts are offered, depending on which subscription plan you choose: For a one-year subscription (52 numéros pour 84 Euros), the payer will get the six double-CD from the Monde de l'Opéra along with their booklets (La Gioconda by Ponchielli, Tristan et Isolde by Wagner, Roméo et Juliette by Gounod, and Don Giovanni, La Flûte Enchantée, and L'Enlèvement au Sérail by Mozart).



For a six-month subscription (26 numéros pour 55 Euros), one gets Plantu's Le Monde watch. But which cartoon is it that the face of the watch shows in this offer — which, to repeat, allows for the ability "to follow, to analyze, and to understand the … international news cycle from Le Monde's viewpoint"? If websites such as LePost.fr and Juif.org are to be believed, the cartoon, published on 11 October 2009, shows nothing less than "bloodthirsty Jews":

…tout ce qu’un Plantu a trouvé pour évoquer le prix Nobel (ridicule soit dit en passant) d’Obama [c'est] Obama entouré de colombes, un « palestinien » se réjouissant à moitié écrasé par un char, lui-même conduit par un Netanyahou grognon à l’idée de la paix. Non seulement Plantu ne comprend rien à la politique de la région, mais pire, il diffuse une image de l’israélien, le juif, amateur de guerre, de sang.

LePost.fr points out that the Palestinian in the cartoon — the average Palestinian? — is nothing but a child, a being of innocence,

un enfant palestinien portant un drapeau palestinien. L'enfant tout sourire adresse ses compliments à Obama porté par les colombes de la paix et volant au secours de l'enfant grâce à son Prix Nobel tout frais gagné.