"Call me sceptical."
No you are disingenous and a deceiver.

This lawyer makes no mention of the blatant US bias when it votes on resolutions against Israel, even though he would be intimately familiar with them. When every single other nation votes to condemn an Israeli action, the US steps in and vetoes the resolution (if you don't believe me, check it out, it's all there on the record).

So Allan, why not mention that bias FOR Israel? Btw he also neglected to mention that Israel has developed nuclear missile technology in secret. So why shouldn't Iran?

"Vanun is a former Israeli nuclear technician who revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986. He was subsequently abducted in Rome by Israeli Mossad agents and smuggled to Israel, where he was tried in secret and convicted of treason.
Mordechai Vanunu spent 18 years in prison, including more than 11 years in solitary confinement."

Demos, you speak of Israel taking "a land" which was 85% "Moslem" as though this was a bad thing! (Was it a bad thing when Islamic Armies under Kalid bin Al Waheed blitzkrieged Jerusalem ?)

Lets analyse.

Is it just 'a' land? Nope..its the land given by God to Israel in the past, and while there is debate as to whether Israel currently qualifies for that status (due to their lack of obedience to the Law of Moses and their covenant relationship) the fact remains, that in terms of the foundation/constitution of Israel (read Deuteronomy) if they are obedient to the covenant, they have the right to dwell there.

The land never ceases to be "Israel" the only thing which happens is that the 'children' of Israel are vanquished for a time of reflection until they return to God.

[Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.]Dt4:1

Now.. lets look at the concept 'Moslem'. "Is this a good thing".

Well.. many Germans and even some British considered that Adolph Hitler was an enlightened far sighted leader of great calibre and charisma. National Socialism produced some economic wonders. Germans went from getting their pay 3 times a day and spending it so it did not lose its value b4 the end of the day to having a 'Volks' wagen.

But none of that changed the reality of the death camps.

"Moslem" means adherance to Sharia law.
-Sharia law gives the death penalty for 'wrong thinking' (apostacy)
-Sharia law regards captive slave girls as a 'possession' which is why they have no say over their Moslem master deciding when or how often to have sex with them.
-Sharia law mutilates bodies of thieves, by cutting off their hands.
-Sharia law provides the death penalty for insulting Mohammad.

Islam, National Socialism ... 6_of_1, half dozen of the other.

Do any of these things happen in Israel ? "no"

Game...Set...Match.

James,

I think you missed that none of the regimes you referred (China, Syria, etc..) claim to be a democracy that respects human rights except Israel. The claim to be a democracy usually attracts criticism in matter of human rights because it seems to contradict the democracy claim.
Its pointless to criticise a dictatorship since they never claimed to be anything but that: dictators.

Great article James,
From what I remember from school, the UN was created just after WWII as a body to prevent future wars. The idea being that an international forum would be there to allow all countries to voice their grievances and hopefully facilitate negotiation and conciliation rather than invasion.
Good in theory but practice has proved that all we have done is give a platform to the most obnoxious tyrants and despots and unfortunately allowed them to claim a level respectability and moral equivalence that they certainly couldn’t achieve if they just remained some non-productive low rent, third world “People’s Democratic Republic of …” that nobody visited and everybody ignored.
You can never improve bad people’s behaviour by being nice to them. By the fact that they are lacking in integrity means that they only interpret benevolence to them as weakness.
When we grant these countries any form of recognition we are only demeaning ourselves and making it harder to uphold moral codes of what is good and what is bad.
The only way to hopefully improve behaviour of the despots and totalitarians is to ignore them and leave them out in the cold until they show that they have improved.

It is time to abandon the UN and set up an alternative elected world parliament of democratic countries. Dictatorships like Cuba, Zimbabwe, Libya, Syria and the like would not be eligible. The people of each country would elect their representatives, say, one for every five million people, with a minimum of two per country. There will obviously be some disagreement about where to draw the line of which countries can join and which cannot, as some are democratic in part but not totally.

@Chris C,

Cmon, you can't seriously propose that with a straight face? You are creating an exclusive club of countries that preside over the rest of the world. In effect, a world dictatorship. I don't see that going down well

"Dictatorships like Cuba, Zimbabwe, Libya, Syria"
You forgot to add US to that list. Western countries do business with dictatorships all the time and in the case of the US, install them. Rumsfeld/US was dealing with Saddam Hussein at the time of his atrocities http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/ You'll hear our own politicians saying even now what an evil guy Saddam was (which is true), but he was SO evil they actually helped him and supplied him with the Evil chemical weapons and didn't bat an eyelid while his evil crimes took place.
"The US provided less conventional military equipment than British or German companies but it did allow the export of biological agents, including anthrax; vital ingredients for chemical weapons; and cluster bombs sold by a CIA front organisation in Chile, the report says."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,866942,00.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Saddam%27s_Iraq
Lets face it, there are plenty of other evil dictators in the world for which Bush, Blair, and Howard aren't spending a dime or lifting a single military finger for. The difference of course, is the Oil. That explains everything very neatly. No WMD in Iraq. 9/11 attackers were Al Qaeda Saudis, based in Afghanistan. Evil Saddam was left alone by the West while these crimes were being reported by human rights agencies. Listen to those agencies now and you will see the west doesn't give a damn (darfur...etc)

What else? Bush's family did business with Adolph Hitler's Nazis: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1312540,00.html

The democratically elected leader prior to Pinochet was deposed with the help of the CIA and Pinochet the Dictator was put in his place deliberately.

So you were quite right in pointing out there will be disagreements. Your conception of which are noble democracies and which are dictatorships is inaccurate, more or less fits in with what is seen on television which is simplistic and doesn't tell you any nasty little truths.