Israeli anger over Egyptian daily showing Peres as Nazi

The Israeli ambassador to Cairo accused the Egyptian press of inciting hatred against Israel when the Egyptian daily al-Arabi depicted the Israeli foreign minister Shemon Perez as a Nazi.

"Depicting Peres in this way represents incitement and hatred," said Zvi Mazel, the Israeli ambassador in Cairo to reporters in Cairo after he presented an official protest to the Egyptian deputy foreign minister Muhammad al-Orabi.

The Israeli ambassador was referring to a large, front page photo montage in the opposition al-Arabi paper issued on Sunday in which the head of Peres was patched into a photograph of a man in a Nazi Uniform.

A headline beside the picture in the paper said:" Peres, the butcher of Qana, and the messenger of the great criminal Sharon is in Cairo today," in reference to Peres's meeting on Cairo on Sunday with President Hosni Mubarak.

Peres was Israel's prime minister in 1996 when Israel shelled a UN Ð base in the South Lebanese village of Qana, killing 106 villagers seeking shelter from its " Grapes of Wrath," operation against Hizbullah forces fighting israel in South Lebanon.