“I also know countries that do deserve the apartheid label,” Deng continued. “My country Sudan is on the top of the list, but so are Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. What has happened to people in Sudan is a thousand times worse than apartheid in South Africa. And no matter how the Palestinians suffer, they suffer nothing compared to my people. Most of the suffering is the fault of their leaders.”
After the 9/11 attacks, Tutu urged Americans to engage in soul-searching as to what motivated al Qaeda and its supporters, implying they had legitimate, rational grievances because many were “not lunatic fringe.” He himself already knew the answer: “poverty” (apparently bin Laden was down to his last $500 million). Unlike the understandable terrorist attacks, however, the U.S. military response was inexcusable “vengeance” in Tutu’s view.
It is not surprising to learn that Tutu is a supporter of the like-minded Rev. Jeremiah Wright. While in Chicago last year to accept the Lincoln Leadership Prize from Oprah Winfrey, Tutu reprimanded Americans for getting “very, very upset” at Wright and defended Wright’s anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist outbursts as necessary commentaries on “race.”
Seemingly to remove any doubt about his true intentions in honoring Tutu, Obama is also awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Mary Robinson, who as president of Ireland sent millions of dollars to the PLO. Later, as UN commissioner, she led the 2001 Durban conference that Secretary of State Colin Powell walked out of when he saw it was nothing more than an anti-Semitic rally.
A message is being sent to the Jewish community and Israel that differs dramatically from the message of healing and reconciliation conveyed to the rest of the world.