Looking up something that President Obama said — “I’m the closest thing to a Jew that has ever sat in this office” — I discovered something that Martin Indyk said. Indyk was Bill Clinton’s ambassador to Israel; he was then an envoy for Obama. And he has now talked to Israel the way male chauvinists have traditionally talked to women.

He told an interviewer, “You are an emotional nation, not a rational nation. You work from your gut and not your mind.”

Indyk has spent a lot of time in Israel — but his impression is not mine, I can tell you. Also, I wonder what he might have to say to the Arab states, plus Iran, plus Turkey: Are they models of rationality? Or is Israel the only hysterical one?

And if you were looking down the barrel of a nuclear gun (and had already experienced one holocaust) — you might be a little nervous, too.

One more thing: Are Democratic diplomats allowed to talk the way Indyk has? Are Republican diplomats given the same allowance? Or from them would it be malpractice?