The easiest target

A lot of people who don't know much about the Israel/Palestine conflict at least realise that the Israeli Occupation is bad. However, I often suspect that a lot of these people think that it's a complicated conflict and Israel is, at the end of the day, but one of two pretty dirty sides. Although I tend not to dwell on it, I sometimes wonder whether some people think my sympathy for the Palestinian cause has more to do with the colour of my skin than any objective assessment of who is morally in the right. Whereas say a Westerner with an interest in Liberia would be viewed as having an impartial interest in the situation there, someone of Muslim/Middle Eastern origin, it is assumed, is always going to be more sympathetic to the Palestinians than the Israelis. More than that, I think a lot of people simply would not place Israel alongside the worst of the worst oppressors. Israel is after all a highly industrialised nation. And they're Jewish, and Jews are the oldest oppressed minority, right?

If any of the things I've said strike a chord with you I'd recommend you watch this documentary. I will just come out and say that it seems that every day Israel starts resembling Nazi Germany more and more. I don't think that's a coincidence, there is a long history of the oppressed modelling themselves on the oppressor leading to tragic consequences (Rwanda immediately comes to mind).