ArcaMax

Surely, you've heard of the brutal conflict that has displaced millions of people and killed more than 14,000, while aid convoys have trouble getting where they need to go?

No, the Sudanese civil war hasn't been on your radar screen?

OK, but how about the crisis that has led to more than half the population of a country needing humanitarian assistance amid constant turmoil and war?

You haven't heard much about the conflict in Yemen lately, either?

Perhaps, then, the war that has forced large numbers of people to flee the fighting multiple times, while as much as a quarter of the population is facing hunger or illness?

Actually, the fight between the military and armed opposition groups in Myanmar also isn't top of mind?

These are terrible situations that garner very little or almost no attention, in contrast to the overwhelming level of focus on Israel's war in Gaza, almost all of it through a hostile lens.

This is nothing new. The Jewish state has long been singled out for opprobrium and held to a standard different than that of other societies. Some of this is justified. As an advanced Western-style democracy and ally of the United States, Israel should be better than whatever armed faction is preying on people in some Third World country -- and, indeed, Israel is better.

International organizations, the media and left-wing activists create exactly the opposite impression, though. Given the amount of time and energy devoted to condemning Israel, one would be forgiven for thinking that the world would be a much more peaceful, just place if only it weren't for the existence of a Jewish state.

There are important distinctions between the war in Gaza and the other conflicts mentioned above. Israel isn't staging a coup or fighting a civil war. It was perfectly content -- indeed, in retrospect, much too content -- to live with a Gaza controlled by Hamas, until it was subjected to a heinous attack that no other society today or in any other period in history would tolerate.

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