Arab-Israeli hypocrisy by Western govts

A article in today's Canberra Times showed a lovely example of the uneven treatment we English-speaking western countries show to Israel and Palestine. Here are the words of John Howard himself, quoted in this article Firstly, Foreign Minister Downer described Howard as supportive of a "peace that makes equitable provision for both sides". 'After declaring himself "an unapologetic and long-standing friend of Israel" (who is asking him to apologise?), Mr Howard said the "first ingredient" of "a just settlement and a peace" in the region was the "right of Israel to exist behind secure and defensible boundaries". Later in the speech he acknowledged - presumably as a secondary incregient for peace - that the Palestinian people "do have legitimate aspirations", such as "a right to aspite to a homeland"' (Arab-Israeli hypocrisy remarkable by Simon Burchill in Canberra Times, 25 Feb 2002, p. 11) Burchill goes on to identify unbalanced reporting in the Australian Financial Review clearly supportive of Israel. Apparently, around the same time, Downer said to the State Zionist Council of Victoria "we believe that unbalanced creiticism and the singling out of Israel only for blame in teh current context are deeply unhelpful". Certainly, I am surprised by how often we hear reports from one side of this and other conflicts, ie, the side closer to our (conservative Australian/Western) viewpoint, which just seem to be accepted as a factual report, where the other sider seems to be more critically reported. Similarly, I haven't done a study, but my impression is that we hear and see more pictures of suffering Israelis than Palestinians, and far less of Israeli fighters than Palestinian stone throwers.