Archbishop Desmond Tutu preached in Boston on Saturday "in a lengthy and emotional address to a packed Old South Church," according to Sunday's Globe. And what did he preach about? The same topic he's always preaching about these days: the evil the Jews are inflicting on the Palestinians. You wonder why a South African cleric of the Anglican Church is fixated on Israel, or at least I wonder. It could be for the same reason that many Christian clerics have always found reason to damn the Jews.
With his characteristic sneer he actually threatened Israel -- and not just the State but the whole People. "Remembering what happened to you in Egypt and much more recently in Germany -- remember and act accordingly." Tutu has outdone even Jimmy Carter by charging that the Israeli government is worse than the apartheid government, and there is a certain gall to this since Israel's actions are a response to the refusal of most Palestinians to talk peace, let alone act peacefully. Of course, Tutu's moralizing is historically blind. The Arabs started every war in the modern Holy Land, and each loss has emboldened them to expect more from any settlement. This is just nonsense. And Tutu knows it. Why is he encouraging such self-deception at the price of bloodshed and Palestinian blood, particularly?