Almost everybody knows that people who think in analogies think sloppily.
Desmond Tutu, leader of the Anglican Church in South Africa, clings to
his comparison between Israel and apartheid South Africa. It is such a
gross analogy, factually and philosophically, that by now it almost needs
no rebuttal.
So now comes Condi Rice, who grew up in the Jim Crow American south, and
compares life for the Palestinians in the Holy Land with her own life in
what had been the Confederacy. Actually, she made quite a lot of her own
life. After all, she'd been provost at Stanford before George Bush handed
her the running of American foreign policy. So where in Israel is there a
race theory of white supremacy? Do Israelis lynch Palestinians? In fact,
if there is a race theory in the troubled land between the river and the
sea it is in the Arab view of the Jews: ape and monkey and lower still.
Here's something: George Bush is brighter than our secretary of state.