In case you did not read fully read the sources, you should know that that are not my my definition, but that of much of the first world community. And while it is true that this is a thread about Israel, it is also a thread about Palestine...and much more favorable to the latter, which is okay when done fairly.

I have been a a 'Catter for about 15 years. I currently have 'traced' six treads on Israel/Palestine. I found five others that have been here, and I remember a couple of them I cannot find. One was titled "Atrocities Other Than Israel," and it only took four posts for it to become largely about...Israel.

I defy you to find anywhere near twelve threads about any other country, from Somalia to Russia, or from North Korea to Iraq, at Mudcat. There are some threads about truly bad actors, far worse than Israel is purported to be, on the world stage...but for the most part they are discussed maybe for a few days and forgotten, although they are still ongoing in their actions.

At Mudcat, no other country, no matter their actions, has been said to have forfeited the right to exist...Israel has, and just by coincidence it is a Jewish homeland. No other nation has been dismissed as a theocracy (and virtually all Muslim countries are), but Israel is a Jewish theocracy, although it isn't. So don't tell me that criticism, here, of Israel is not often criticism of Jews. That no longer passes the smell test.

So, Steve, if I'm a 'twit,' as you have nothing relevant to say about me or the post, I plead guilty, and endorse the text of the 'twits' who have signed the Ottawa Protocol.

Keith-like indeed, as Musket says. I have always had plenty of substance to say on this topic, but, as I've told Keith, no-one sets my agenda on a free-for-all forum. Don't be too disappointed if I have "nothing relevant to say about you or the post". I'm not here to feed your ego, thanks. You bemoan the criticism that Israel gets here. Well, in terms of what I perceive to be outrageous human rights abuses, I could (but won't) bemoan the amount of defence Israel gets here. When you consider that us folkies tend, in general, to empathise with common humanity a bit more than, say, the average Tory or Republican, for whom self-interest is the keynote, it's almost surprising that Israel gets any sympathy at all. But, you see, the reason that this issue inflames passions, and the reason why Israel seems to you to get all the flak, is that the actions of bellicose Israeli regime after regime down the decades have actually been, and still are, the greatest threat to world peace that exists today. Israel worries the yanks far more than "Islamist terrorists" do (just look at the money they throw at that tiny nation), and the two are hardly unconnected in terms of cause and effect, but they can't do a thing about it because of the pro-Israel lobby and the US media who feed the people precisely half the story of what goes on in the Middle East. You are are clearly a victim of that partiality. Willing, by the sound of it.