Israel
I don't write about the Middle East much because its a big muddle that requires a lot more knowledge than I have to comment on seriously.
I will say this about Israel, though: I too would love to see better civil rights performance at times (just as I would like to see better performance from our own damn country) but it's interesting to hypothesize what the US would do in similar circumstances. After watching our post-9/11 Constitutional rollback, I wonder what other extreme steps we would be taking if, say, Mexican rockets routinely landed in San Diego or Nogales or El Paso. One does not have to go too far out on a limb to call the Israeli response "restrained," at least in comparison to what the US would do in parallel circumstances. Not to mention our reaction if a major foreign leader came to our country and urged us to give back the Gadsden Purchase as a solution.
