Steve raised the issue of singling out one country for criticism while carefully avoiding others.

This is a complete misrepresentation of what I said. I said nothing about "carefully avoiding others". In fact, I never defend breaches of human rights, even in countries I might support in other ways (I actually support Israel's right to exist in peace and I have a lot of sympathy for ordinary Israelis, and I've said these things here on a number of occasions). If you want to start a thread singling out another country for the spotlight, go ahead. I'll join in, if I know enough.