To the editor:

Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Pat Oliphant has plumbed new depths with his latest “oeuvre,” a headless, jackbooted, goose-stepping figure wielding a sword and pushing a shark-toothed Star of David toward a cringing Palestinian mother and child (Journal-World, March 28). The graphic imagery in this hate-filled piece would have been right at home in Julius Streicher’s Nazi era anti-Semitic organ Der Stuermer. The only thing missing is a subtitle to remind us that “Israel is Our Misfortune.”

Although the current witch’s brew of Israel hatred claims that it is “only” opposed to Zionism or to Israeli actions while not being anti-Semitic, it is difficult to see that distinction in Oliphant’s cartoon. His equation of Israelis to Nazis and the use of the Star of David, a symbol not only of Israel but of Judaism, give lie to such a claim and are well beyond the pale. I don’t know whether Pat Oliphant is an anti-Semite or not, but I do know he has drawn an anti-Semitic cartoon. He, and the editors of the Journal-World, owe us an apology.