Self-haters.

• Author: Haydon, Martin
• Position: Attacks editors of Progressive for June 1996 comments on Israeli shelling of Lebanese civilians - Response to this letter found in this issue's editorial on page 4 - Letter to the Editor

I've gotten used to your pot-shots at Israel in contrast with your tut-tut wrist-slaps at the Arabs, but your recent comments ("A `Good' Shelling," Comment, June issue) beat your worst previous efforts in the nasty demonstration of Jewish self-hate.

To a psychologist, it is no coincidence that the most unremitting critics of the Israeli battle for survival bear names like Rothschild, Chomsky, Solomon, et alii Judaei.

I suppose it's a compliment to Jewish compassion that such Jews demand more of their brethren than they do of their enemies. Doesn't Israeli persistence in efforts to make a peace pact and withdraw from Arab territory count for anything?

What I don't read is any recognition of the threat to Israeli survival in the face of Hezbollah's campaign to eliminate the Jews in Israel. What puzzles me is the disposition to bury the history of the Jewish diaspora.

Too bad you weren't publishing The Progressive when nameless Jews were enslaved by the Egyptians or were being tortured to death during the Inquisition, or when eight nameless millions were shoveled into German and Polish pits, or when countless Russian Jews were...