That line also made me laugh, and it is sooo to the point. Stein is such a great writer!
Related to the "see my parade passing" but not the same. I have been perplexed by European support for Palestinians, but I got an idea going through Dutch art museums again. For Europeans, the Middle East provides an exotic, sensual inspiration to romantic fantasies they don't want to give up. Israel is more like a high tech, Bauhaus modernism that is very familiar and boring to them. The Beduins and camels and bleak deserts support European superority in a time of waning confidence just as they did in the age of exploration. They feel paternalistic towards them.