Well CarolC you may disagree, but the example of South Africa doesn't address my opinion about "a lot of other countries, on balance". It only addresses the "compared to other countries" that I pointed out. I'm sorry if you were raked over the coals for your opinion, and I don't mean to imply that yours is trendy, but I think I do see a bit of a trend.

   Will's column roller-paints a big hunk of the world as Euro-loony and anti-semitic, and is so busy with it he doesn't have time to express an opinion about Israel. Hunh. Without saying whether he does or doesn't think there's grounds for legitimate criticism of Israel, his mush of accusation seems pretty darned cowardly. The possibility that a current trend of criticism might be sympathetic to that of many American Zionists themselves doesn't seem to occur to him, and yet my friend Seth despises Sharon, and only returned from studying in Israel because of his father's health.