If you only read one opinion article this year...

make it this one....

Greg Sheridan writing in The Australian about Israel and the Palestinian questions.

For me, the key points are this (without looking to remove blame from Israel for things theymight have done).

Why is Israel the only country condemned by the UN and the media for human rights violations?  Fine, if Israel does the wrong thing, have at them.  But then you should also have at everybody else.  Can you really compare a couple of hundred civilian deaths in Gaza (not counting Hamas combatants here) against the 300,000 or more deaths in Sudan?  Why does no-one ever mention the huge numbers of Palestinians killed by other Palestinians?

Why does no-one ever mention the economic failings (massive economic failings) of the Arab states that surround Israel?  Oh no, it´s all the Jew´s fault (most things are apparently).

Why on earth do people who would be put to death in brutal and horrific ways (homosexuals), locked up without trial for indefinite periods (various academics and so-called intellectuals) or subjected to a lifetime of oppression and sujugation (women) think that´s it a great idea to support Islamic fundamentalists (islamo fascists) and the various loony Arab regimes?

Now I´m not going to argue about the truth or otherwise of Israel´s crimes (although I would be happy to), but even if everything that has ever been said about Israel is true, surely the above points are still valid?  Attack Israel for its failings, but make sure you look properly at everyone else´s failings as well.

Read the article, it´s rather excellent.

cheers

Harry

ps, if you read the comments there´s some quite interesting stuff in there.  My favourite - 

Anti Semitism is not only one of Europe's oldest religions, a "faith" consoling many nice people to this day, it has outlived Christianity there. Now the failing Arab states embrace it too. Like other consoling faiths, it can't be destroyed by rational arguments like this essay, I'm sorry to say.