Conflicts in the Middle East frequently pose awkward questions. Rory Miller and Alan Shatter ask some more...
Now that a ceasefire in Lebanon has been agreed there will, no doubt, be numerous inquests and questions asked about the month-long Lebanon war. So here's some we would like to ask.
Which country invaded its neighbour in mid-2006 in order to, as they put it, "crush" Islamists threatening regional stability?
Which country killed an estimated 500 people in a week when its artillery began bombarding its long-time guerrilla enemy in late July 2006, causing mass displacement and suffering?
If you think the answer is Israel, you guessed wrong.
On July 19th Ethiopia sent 5,000 troops into Somalia to suppress Islamists who had not even fired one rocket at it, or kidnapped or killed any of its soldiers. The artillery barrage came from the Sri Lankan army, which continues to pound civilian areas held by the Tamil Tigers. Earlier this week, an estimated 50 children were killed when their orphanage was bombed by Sri Lankan warplanes.
So how come our politicians completely ignore these crises and instead choose to focus solely on Israel's campaign in Lebanon?
Why have the same politicians hardly let out a whisper of criticism of those responsible for other such tragedies in Darfur, with its estimated 300,000 dead and at least 2.5 million refugees; or Chechnya, where an estimated 150,000-160,000 have died, where a third of the population has been displaced and the country has been left in rubble by the Russian army; or the war in the Congo, with over four million dead or driven from their homes?
Why has the Lord Mayor of Dublin, for example, described the Israeli action as "probably one of the greatest scandals of the new millennium" but not seen it necessary to comment on any of these other conflicts?
Why have supposedly apolitical cultural bodies - such as the Irish Film Institute and the Festival of World Cultures in Dún Laoghaire - decided to cancel sponsorship from the Israeli embassy because of Israel's actions in Lebanon, but never seen the need to act similarly regarding countries involved in other conflicts around the world?
The truth is that Israel's use of military force, combined over the 60 years since its birth, has caused far fewer casualties and damage than war, conflict and oppression in Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Burundi, Cambodia, Chad, Chechnya, China, Colombia, El Salvador, Eritrea and Ethiopia (and that's only the beginning of the alphabet; if we go to countries beginning with "I", there's India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq).
So why is it that people have taken to the streets of Dublin, Cork, Galway and Dundalk to protest at the Israeli campaign in Lebanon but have never felt the need to do the same to express anger over any of these more bloody conflicts?
Why is it that, over the last few decades, successive governments have made numerous statements condemning Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, while TDs and Senators have called for the economic boycott of Israel, but have felt no need to do the same in response to the mistreatment of Palestinians across the Arab world from Saudi Arabia to Lebanon, a country which was condemned in a June 2006 Amnesty International report for its "long-standing discrimination and abuses of fundamental economic and social rights of Palestinian refugees"?
Or, for that matter, why has there never been any Irish outcry when Arab countries have killed Palestinians on a grand scale?
In 1970, King Hussein of Jordan ordered the indiscriminate bombing of Palestinian refugee camps in the course of putting down the Palestinian uprising during "Black September". This left between 3,000 and 5,000 Palestinian refugees dead. Why was the fact that King Hussein killed more Palestinians in the course of a single month than Israel managed to do in decades never held against him, or even raised, on his visits to this country?
Again, more than two decades ago, Abu Iyad, the number two man in the PLO, publicly stated that the crimes of the Syrian government against the Palestinian people "surpassed those of the Israeli enemy". Much of this took place in Lebanon, where Syria was responsible for approximately 100,000 deaths and for the flight of up to half a million civilians from their homes, as well as for mass executions, as occurred, according to one 1986 Amnesty International report, when Syrian troops entered the town of Tripoli and executed hundreds of civilians, including numerous women and children.
How come in the 25 years that this was going on there was not one Dáil debate or public statement by a politician on these Syrian atrocities in Lebanon?
Where were the calls for boycotts, or the condemnations of Kuwait, when in the wake of its liberation in 1991, it embarked on the widespread slaughter of Palestinians living in the kingdom?
This revenge against innocent Palestinian workers was so severe that Yasser Arafat himself acknowledged: "What Kuwait did to the Palestinian people is worse than what has been done by Israel to Palestinians in the occupied territories."
Lastly, why, 60 years after its establishment, is Israel the only state in the world whose politicians are presented in Oireachtas debates as war criminals, whose economy faces relentless calls for sanctions and boycotts, and whose right to exist is constantly debated and challenged in the letters pages of our newspapers?
Maybe one of those who has felt the need to write such letters, or to call for a boycott, or to take to the streets against Israel, or to speak out in the Seanad, but has not seen the need to do the same in regard to any other country or conflict, could let us know why - because we just can't figure it out.
Dr Rory Miller is a senior lecturer in Mediterranean Studies at King's College, London. Alan Shatter is a former Fine Gael TD and a former head of the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee.