A friend writes:
On the reduction of the Gaza protest to the shouts of street rabble–another symptom in a letter to the New York Times this morning by Alan Dershowitz.
Dershowitz is responding to the February 8 op-ed by Alaa Al Aswany, "Why the Muslim World Can't Hear Obama"; Dershowitz refers to "the Arab street" (twice) and "the Cairo street." So, the Muslim world becomes the Arab street. Yet the latter phrase, "Arab street," does not appear in Al Aswany's column, which was describing public opinion in the Middle East. What would we say of an American who, after a violent police action that killed hundreds, chose to characterize the reaction of blacks including John Lewis, Colin Powell, and Toni Morrison as "the black street" or "the Harlem street"?
