To the Editor:

We are outraged by the blatantly anti-Semitic cartoon by Petar Pismestrovic ("Past and Present" May 19).

In comparing a Nazi and an Israeli soldier, the cartoons constructs an analogy between the deliberate Nazi policy to annihilate the Jews of Europe, and accidental Palestinian casualties as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Whatever one's view of Israeli policies, this comparison is inappropriate and offensive.  The cartoon is particularly offensive coming from an Austrian newspaper considering Austria's past.