Condi---Almost As Useless As Colin

What is it about Foggy Bottom that turns Secretaries of State into brainless Pod People?

SOME ISRAELIS and supporters of Israel attribute Rice's irrational championing of Palestinian statehood to anti-Israeli bigotry. These voices cite Rice's penchant for drawing parallels between white supremacists in the pre-Civil Rights movement era American South and Israeli soldiers carrying out counterterror operations in Judea and Samaria. By repeatedly invoking this morally and factually perverted comparison, they claim that Rice exposes a deep-seated animus towards the Jewish state and its citizens.

But there is another possible - in fact more likely - explanation for Rice's behavior. It is quite possible that Rice has simply isolated herself from all information and all persons bearing information that might force her to change her policy course.

In an investigative report on the Hamas takeover of Gaza last June, Vanity Fair reporter David Rose recalls Rice's reaction to the terror group's electoral victory. Speaking to reporters at the time, Rice said, "I've asked why nobody saw it coming. I don't know anyone who wasn't caught off guard by Hamas's strong showing."

What is remarkable about this statement is what it says about the insulated nature of Rice's world. Indeed, it is a veritable echo chamber. In Israel, this writer, as well as The Jerusalem Post's Khaled Abu Toameh warned that Hamas was likely to win those elections. So did esteemed Israeli diplomatic and military leaders like former UN ambassador Dore Gold, former IDF chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. (res.) Moshe Ya'alon and many others. In the Bush administration, David Wurmser, who at the time served as Vice President Richard Cheney's Middle East adviser, similarly warned that Hamas would likely win. Other senior voices in the administration voiced concern as well.

I suspect that State administers a test to all prospective employees requiring an inability to distinguish America's allies from her enemies.