Firstly, let me make clear that the stances I'm describing here are not necessarily my own - I describe the stance of my more pro-Palestinian compatriots here, I'm rather more balanced myself, thanks in part to the many contacts with Americans (and two Israelis, one of them being AO).

Secondly, you aren't exactly being fair when you try to deride Europeans as hypocrites for giving so much more attention to the Israeli/Palestine conflict than to other conflicts, when Americans do precisely the same thing - merely on the other side.


To go with your amusing Monty Python analogy, all their limbs are already cut off. There's nothing more left to cut off, whether they are peaceful or not. Obviously negotiations can't happen at a time when they're regularly firing missiles, but as I said, there have been times that they didn't fire missiles, and in fact aren't firing missiles now (except for the one yesterday). They can and most likely will get negotiations without prior disarmament, without going the Gandhi way, and since it's unlikely that Israel would suddenly start making additional concessions if they did go the Gandhi way, I really don't see any reason why they'd do it. That's my point.


Um... because it isn't? Israel has a GDP, a democracy, a society that is comparable to those in the West if you ignore the Palestinian issue. Russia does not - less than half Israel's wealth per capita, and a one-party democracy with a desire for strong leaders overwhelming the desire for real democracy. I would think all that is rather obvious, but of course if it gets in the way of your righteous indignation and attempts to claim moral superiority...

Let's see, for the part about paying attention, pot blaming the kettle, see above. For the part about the first world nation, see above as well. That leaves us with the part about the Chechnyans being a conquered people - yes, they are, but they've been part of the Soviet Union/Russia for a century or most likely more, and they had full civil rights as such. From what I know about the Soviet Union, probably a limited form of cultural rights as well. One can support their separatism or not, but comparing it to the situation in the Israeli/Palestine conflict is a serious stretch.

Covered all of this above.

Most Europeans weren't exactly involved in said mistreatment, but why let that get in the way of good rhetoric. As for your actual point, like I said, I don't necessarily agree with the stance, and I can see why you'd call it misguided, but I can also see where they're coming from. If you're interested in actually understanding these things, I'm sure you can if you do some effort (I'll give you a few hints to get started: 1948 did happen after 1945, and Israel occupied the Palestinian territories for over twenty years after the 1967 war). Of course, if you're going to pretend that Israel was the innocent victim not only in the Holocaust but also in the Israeli-Palestine conflict, I can see how that fiction would get in the way of things a little.