You did an excellent job with your blog. Thanks for Buruma's article; it's excellent. I don't always agree with him on the particulars (I'm more right-wing), but in general, he has excellent insight into the situation, and is very fair-minded. (Have you read his and Avishai Margalit's work "Occidentalism"?) One more thing I'd add to your excellent analysis of the situation is how little attention is being paid to the failure of Palestinian leadership.

An excellent article written with much sensitivity. However, the fact still remains that Israel had occupied territory as a result of the Six Day War of June 1967 and encouraged Israeli settlement in these areas. Many of these settlers were given various tax exemptions and other perks.Their treatment and exploitation of the Palestinians left much to be desired.Israel would have been in a far better position morally had there not been settlements in occupied Palestinian lands.

It is very difficult to justify an occupation by one nation over another and this is a strong point that is not in Israel's favour. Many of us are aware that the Six Day War of 1967 was a war foisted onto Israel in order to destroy her. This fact is overlooked by many nations for expediency sake
and the word "Israeli Occupation" is ingrained in the world psyche.The threat of use of the "oil weapon" instills fear in the world. If Israel had oil for export then the world attitude and cronyism towards the Arab states would be far less.

The world of nations always see the situation in the Middle East in simplistic terms such as "Israel being the occupier and denier of Palestinian rights is no match for the Palestinians",

Good blog, but a little long!

Hi Shimon, Thanks for your comment. I agree that Israels settlement policy was and is wrong, and it certainly encouraged hostility towards Israel. The subject of this blog was however, why double standards exist, and Israel is judged more severily for its wrongs than other countries. More countries occupy territories where another people wants to establish their own state. A major problem is that much critisism on Israel hides a denial of its right to exist. The fact that the Six Day war is viewed by many as an expansionist war of Israel, not a war 'foisted onto Israel to destroy her' as you say, is a clear indication of this. Ratna