Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Reuters)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces criticism for alienating President Obama's administration Reuters

A cartoon depicting Benjamin Netanyahu flying an Israeli plane into a skyscraper with a US flag flying from the top of it, an allusion to the 9/11 terror attack on New York by Islamic extremists, has been accused of being anti-Semitic.

Netanyahu is the prime minister of Israel. A hardliner, he has alienated his US political allies by approving more illegal settlements in West Bank and overseeing another brutal assault on the Gaza Strip, ostensibly against Hamas militants but which destroyed key civil infrastructure and left more than 1,400 civilians dead.

The controversial cartoon appeared in the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz and has been defended by the editors, who say it is satirising the waning relationship between the Israeli and US governments.

Critics have called the cartoon disrespectful to the thousands killed in the 9/11 attacks, in which Al-Qaida hijackers flew plans into the Twin Towers, demolishing them, as well as the Pentagon in Washington. A fourth plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field.

And some have said it is anti-Semitic because it plays into the hands of oddball conspiracy theorists who believe Israel was behind 9/11, not al-Qaida, and that Jews secretly control the planet.

"Amos Biderman's editorial cartoon was a reaction to the current state of mistrust between Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Obama administration," wrote Haaretz editor-in-chief Aluf Benn, adding he regrets the misreading of the image's message.

But what do you think? Is the Haaretz cartoon of Netanyahu anti-Semitic?