Now, if you want a truly inappropriate reference to the falling bodies at the World Trade Center, feature the analogy that’s being made by a high-ranking Arab diplomat in appearances about town. Conceding the analogy might shock some people, the diplomat spoke of those leaping from the burning Trade Center — and then compared them to the Palestinian Arab suicide bombers who, he said, feel they have nothing to lose by leaving their misery under the Israeli occupation.

The Arab diplomat was apparently trying to advances his country’s public image in America, or that of Arabs in general, with this preposterous comparison. In fact he is hurting his cause. But that is a matter between the diplomat and his superiors.

Challenged on the issue, the diplomat acknowledged that there is a difference of, as the diplomat put it, magnitude, between the Trade Center jumpers and the suicide bombers. But the difference is not of magnitude. The Trade Center jumpers weren’t suicides in any meaningful sense — they were murder victims. And the suicide bombers aren’t suicides in any traditional sense — they are murderers. Beyond that, the Trade Center jumpers — innocent office workers — bore no responsibility for the fire they fled, while the Palestinian Arabs have brought their fate upon themselves by their failure for so long to accept Israel’s right to exist in peace and security.

What ought to concern Americans is that our own tax dollars are being used to fund and arm a regime that sends its diplomats to our shores to insult us.