Israeli Character

Though the Israeli “national character” may be deserving of examination, the simplistic analysis of “It’s a Sin to Be a Sucker in Israel” (July 25) serves nothing more than to present Israelis as borderline criminals (to American eyes) and people who view law as something the “other guy” has to follow. This creates a false impression of Israel to American readers who are not familiar with that nation’s history, culture, or people. Your “assessment” of the Israeli national character simply reinforces stereotypes reaching back to the Middle Ages, of the Jew as greedy and grasping, out only for himself. This is a shameful lapse of editorial discretion.

Israel has existed a very short time (less than 50 years). Yet during that period, that nation and its people have emerged as a society both democratic and based on the rule of law. If Israelis seem somewhat rough or impolite, perhaps we should try living in a state of constant siege for 50 years before we deign to pass judgment.

GREGG ROSSEN, Santa Monica

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Your story about it being “a sin to be a sucker in Israel” startled me in that it was too similar to the Nazi propaganda articles I’d just read a month before at the Holocaust museum in Washington. Singling out a group with blanket stereotyping--that the people of Israel are intolerably rude, suspicious and view kindness as stupidity: Is this the Los Angeles Times, 1997, or Munich, Germany, 1939?

BRENDA ALLAMAN, Newport Beach