World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder has condemned the editors of the British weekly magazine ‘New Statesman’ for what he called a “despicable and totally unfair attack” on Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel. “Likening Chancellor Merkel to Hitler, as the New Statesman has seen fit to do, is not only wrong, it is also in very bad taste,” Lauder said in reaction to the magazine’s cover story that appeared today and in which author Mehdi Hassan calls Merkel “the most dangerous German leader since Hitler.”
Lauder declared: “To compare the democratically elected leader of today’s Germany with the brutal dictator Hitler is revolting and sickening. Not only is Chancellor Merkel a committed European, but there are few statesmen in Europe who have done more for Israel and the Jewish people.
“A journalist is of course entitled to criticize her policies, but should not publicly vilify her. It is sad to see that political debate is poisoned by the constant comparisons of today’s leaders with the Nazis,” the WJC president said. He added that such methods, whilst expected from extremists and anti-Semites, should not be resorted to by respectable publications.
