The flotilla thread was one that sparked debate, particularly between you and me. You were adament that Israel was in the right and just knocking off a few terrorists, I disagreed with you.

The findings of the U.N. have sided with my side of the argument suggesting that Israel commited assasinations, including that of one US citizen. It was a show of force, carefully planned and designed to let future flotilla know what the consequences would be if they tried to go against the IDF.

North Korea is a terrible issue. However, it isn't even cut and dry whether North Korea even attacked the ship. A sizeable segment of the South Korea population even thinks Lee Myong Park was behind it in an attempt to bolster his popularity in time for elections. I'm not sure I totally buy this either though. There simply aren't enough credible facts to understand really what happened. This is in marked contrast to the flotilla.

The main difference between North Korea and Israel is that it doesn't have illegal expansionist ambitions and actually has UN sanctions placed upon it. This doesn't excuse the evil of its regime which is evil and IMO far worse than Saddam ever was. However the west simply wouldn't have any resources to exploit. My point is basically that Iraq got sanctions then regime change. North Korea gets sanctions with no sign of regime change, despite people being HEAVILY repressed. Israel is free to flout international rule with the constant backing of US support whilst the Palestinians continue to be Heavily repressed. See the differences?

For sure, it is an issue that I find fascinating. How does a country manage to commit so many crimes and yet always get bailed out by the worlds superpower. It doesn't matter how bad the crime is. The recent peace negotiations saw America request that settlements stop being built for a further 2 months. In return the US would give military aid, complete unquestioned support at the UN for another year etc. Now why should Israel be granted International impunity just for stopping the building of what are clearly illegal settlements? This is what I find interesting. It is a strange, warped relationship.

This is an area that I have only really started to get interested in in the last 3 years or so and for sure, I am very interested in it's continual evolution. If other interesting stories come up then I will be sure to say something and if it's Israel being the big, bad bully then I will likely point it out (as that is usually the case and there is nothing anti-semitic in pointing that out).