Controversy Over Cutting Aid to Israel

The Oliphant cartoon (Jan. 26) plows new and dangerous ground for The Times. Look at the woman in the cartoon and ask yourselves this question: If this caricature had targeted any other recognized minority in the United States, would you have had any rest from the endless delegations trooping through your office demanding an apology?

Well, I demand an apology. The connection with the piece by George only makes the visual all the more tacky. I am sure that even George, whose organization never ceases to draw a pencil-thin distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, would have to look at the cartoon long and hard to see that line.

Why no cartoons showing Egypt on the “dole”? Its bill is two-thirds as high. If there is a reduced threat to the security of Israel resulting from the Soviet Bloc’s current problems, surely the threat to Egypt should also be diminished. The truth is that both countries are recirculating a big chunk of the aid back to the United States to pay interest on their respective previous American foreign military assistance loans. Much of those loans were part of the Carter Administration aid package to sweeten the Camp David accords.

So why is the only fat lady Jewish?

DAVID F. ABERSON

Sherman Oaks