Al-Watani Al-Youm (the National Today) published a cartoon on June 15 showing an aid ship apparently bound for Gaza being grabbed by an octopus carrying an Israeli flag with a Nazi swastika in place of the Star of David symbol.

The weekly is the mouthpiece of President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party.

"The Israeli Embassy chose to comment on this caricature specifically because of the comparison between Israel and Nazism," spokeswoman Shani Cooper-Zubida told Reuters.

"There are a lot of anti-Semitic comments and caricatures in the Egyptian media that we prefer not to comment on. This one didn't present legitimate opposition to Israeli policy, but defamation," she said in an e-mailed response.

Egypt in 1979, became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel, but ties have often been chilly. The storming of an Gaza aid flotilla in May by Israeli forces that left nine activists dead, drew Egyptian and world criticism.

The flotilla had sought to break an Israeli blockade of Gaza. Egypt, the only Arab state to border Gaza, had been criticized by the Arab public for also imposing restrictions on border crossings. Those restrictions have now been partially lifted.

"Using the Nazi swastika symbol in the heart of the cartoon, and even the idea of using it, is an insult to humanity and is tantamount to an anti-Semitic statement," said the letter sent to the newspaper and that was passed to Reuters by the embassy.

Editor Mohamed el-Alfy defended his newspapers position in an editorial saying it was a matter of freedom of expression.

Egypt's president and other officials hold frequent meetings with top Israelis, but the government is often critical of Israeli policies.

Egyptian media and the public are more vocal critics, particularly over Israel's dealings with Palestinians. The flotilla raid drew a welter of critical articles in Egypt's press.