Excellent, AP. What you are citing is what courts call "standing". They have earned the right to speak to their own group. Israeli citizens, especially Jewish Israeli citizens, feel free to harshly criticize their government ... while the same things being said by those outside that nation would be seen as anti-Israel if not antisemitic. By the same token, I view criticism of the United States by our own citizens very differently than the exact same thing being said by, say, Vladimir Putin. We have such standing as free citizens of our nation. He does not.

Mrs Obama or Dr Cosby can say things that I, as an old white guy, could not say to a black audience. Imagine that.

"There’s a reason the Constitution begins “We the people . . .” rather than “We the unconnected individuals who couldn’t care less about one another . . . .” - Eugene Robinson