As you may or may not be aware, Russia was responsible for killing at least 35,000 Muslim civilian non-combatants in Chechnya, while demolishing over half a million Chechen homes. The carnage & devastation in Grozny makes Gaza look like a friendly little tea-party. So where were all the angry mobs, rioters and protesters expressing solidarity with the Chechens? I seem to have missed that. Can someone explain to me what exactly makes Israel such a magnet for all this 'humanitarian' outrage?
IMO most of the protesters of Israel's "atrocities" don't really give a shit about the Palestinians, they simply hate the Jews.
Several reasons - first, people think that protesting might actually affect Israel's future actions. People did not protest against Russia because they knew Russia did not give a damn and would simply ignore them (or worse). Second, Israel is a reasonably tolerant and open society, so people hold it to a higher standard than somewhere like Russia which is widely *expected* to behave somewhat badly. Third, some people are inherently anti-authority and see it as their job to criticise what they see as bullies in power. Israel is far more powerful than Hamas and the Palestinians and therefore the anti-authoritarians side with the weaker of the two groups.
What happened in Chechnya. Where did the violence go? Is this another Bush victory in the war on terror. Has Bush disrupted the terrorist network with the Surge. Not so easy now to recruit and shuffle petential terrorists across bordors anymore. Most fighters used to come from Egypt, Saudi, Oman, Jorden. All that is left is this war are mostly local terrorist from the Afghan/ Paki bordor.