Referring to a December 1 Colorado Media Matters item, Rocky Mountain News editorial page editor Vincent Carroll defended a recent statement by Craig Silverman, co-host of 630 KHOW-AM's The Caplis & Silverman Show, in which Silverman asserted that former President Jimmy Carter (D) is “making the rounds of all the national shows, talking about Israel as if they were the second coming of Nazi Germany.”

Silverman's remarks came in response to Carter's promotion of his most recent book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid (Simon & Schuster, November 2006), in which the former president compares Israel's treatment of the Palestinians not to Nazi Germany, but to South Africa's treatment of its black population under its previous system of apartheid.

In his December 7 column, Carroll challenged Colorado Media Matters' “blast[ing]” of Silverman, contending that Silverman “has a point” in his criticism of Carter. According to Carroll:

The left-wing Web site Colorado Media Matters blasted KHOW radio host Craig Silverman the other day for claiming Carter is “making the rounds of all the national shows, talking about Israel as if they were the second coming of Nazi Germany.”

“In fact,” the group maintains, “Carter has been comparing Israel's treatment of the Palestinians with the way South Africa oppressed its black population under apartheid.”

Well, sure: Why else use “apartheid” in the title? Silverman isn't blind. He simply believes Carter talks about Israel as if it also were a Nazi-like state. He has a point, too.

As Colorado Media Matters noted on December 1, Carter described the Israeli-Palestinian state of affairs to CBS Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith by saying, “It's based on a minority of Israelis occupying, confiscating and colonizing land that belongs to the Palestinians.” A CBS News article about the interview reported that Carter said, “When Israel does occupy this territory deep within the West Bank and connects 200 or so settlements (to) each other with a road and prohibits the Palestinians from using that road, in many cases even crossing the road -- this perpetrates even worse instances of ... apartheid than we witnessed in South Africa.”

According to Carroll, “If Carter is going to speak as recklessly as this, then Silverman is free to suggest the former president is stooping to an obscene depiction of Israel as the second coming of Nazis -- who after all spent nearly a decade persecuting Jews and confiscating their property before ever marching anyone to a gas chamber.”

From Vincent Carroll's column, “On Point: Carter's recklessness,” published in the December 7 edition of the Rocky Mountain News:

Nearly everyone agrees that Jimmy Carter's new book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, is a harsh indictment of Israel. But how harsh?

The left-wing Web site Colorado Media Matters blasted KHOW radio host Craig Silverman the other day for claiming Carter is “making the rounds of all the national shows, talking about Israel as if they were the second coming of Nazi Germany.”

“In fact,” the group maintains, “Carter has been comparing Israel's treatment of the Palestinians with the way South Africa oppressed its black population under apartheid.”

Well, sure: Why else use “apartheid” in the title? Silverman isn't blind. He simply believes Carter talks about Israel as if it also were a Nazi-like state. He has a point, too.

“I've heard Carter say Israel's treatment of Palestinians is worse than apartheid,” Silverman told me Wednesday. As it happens, Colorado Media Matters confirms this on its Web site. For example, it notes that the former president told Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith that the Israeli policy of “occupying, confiscating and colonizing land that belongs to the Palestinians ... perpetrates even worse instances of ... apartheid than we witnessed in South Africa.”

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If Carter is going to speak as recklessly as this, then Silverman is free to suggest the former president is stooping to an obscene depiction of Israel as the second coming of Nazis -- who after all spent nearly a decade persecuting Jews and confiscating their property before ever marching anyone to a gas chamber.