... There is no equivalence: the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands (as declared by the UN) and the oppression of the people with regular armed patrols of soldiers in their streets, and the massive bombardment of Gaza resulting in wholesale destruction and hundreds of deaths of women and children, and the continued blockade of medicines and materials for reconstruction which followed, are criminal actions sanctioned by the state you paint in glowing terms of admiration.
Tisk.
Israel is, as you say, no paragon of virtue, in addition has practiced state terrorism, and has a rich history of official corruption. This places Israel in the same spot as, oh, say, the UK or US. Israel's neighbors have a rather less brilliant track record, and are worth a rather less "glowing" report.
Translation: before you dump on/praise any country, set a standard for comparison, or it is all crap. Oh, and as for the novel observation that homo lupus hominem, there is no surprise there, either.
Now, my standard for comparison is the degree of real - if always imperfect - support for human rights and democratic governance in terms of law, policy, and action. On that score, Israel remains in the same company as before, still with all its warts intact, of course. Its neighbors remain quite on the other end of the spectrum, worthy of a much, much larger share of scorn. It's all relative, but there is a scale along which to measure, making such vicious takedowns of Israel transparently silly and maliciously out of context.
