The psychologist Professor Carlo Strenger (Haaretz, August 12) tried to show sympathy to the distress experienced by the religious right who, according to Strenger, live "in the Bible." The arguments presented in his article are characterized by false and distorted analysis of the Israeli reality, using terms as if taken from "1984," George Orwell's novel in which truth and falsity were used interchangeably, and brain-washing was a major tool in the hands of a dangerous government.

Strenger divides the Israelis roughly into two groups: The first - henceforth, the "enlightened" in their own view - "follows the liberal-modern tradition. Its worldview is guided by concepts including universal human rights and the rule of law. It considers human life, not the state or the land, a universal value." The second group - henceforth, the religious right - is one whose "world is dominated by sacred values from ancient texts."

Strenger forgets that the liberal-modern tradition he admires is based on exactly those ancient texts, the Bible. He disregards a huge section of the public - henceforth, the secular "orange" citizens - that follows the liberal-modern tradition, but does not renounce the sources of Jewish heritage. Strenger thinks only about the religious right when he claims "that many Israelis feel that the foundation of their existence is in danger."