28 FEBRUARY 1981, Page 18

Terms of abuse

Sir: , Edward Mortimer (24 January) identifies The New Republic as `right-wing Zionist'. It is pro-Zionist, even Zionist, assertively so. But on no one's actounting, least of all that of real right-wing Zionists, can it be termed right-wing Zionist. But to Arabisants, right or left, any kind of Zionist is fit for abuse.

Martin Peretz Editor-in-Chief, The New Republic, 1220 Nineteenth Street NW, Washington, DC USA