"This animal is wicked, it defends itself when attacked." This adage encapsulates perfectly another false moral equivalence, one habitually applied to Israel. No other nation is in the same position of having to ward off so many enemies and ill-wishers, while at the same time having every measure of self-defence condemned as aggression.

An eminent lawyer and professor at the Harvard Law School, Alan Dershowitz shows in The Case Against Israel's Enemies how this phenomenon of false moral equivalence depends on confusing victim and victimiser. Like any other state, Israel is responsible for protecting its citizens. Yet, for example, former President Jimmy Carter can write a book dressing up Israel's rights and responsibilities in such a way that they become accusations of apartheid and racism which, in his eyes, invalidate its legitimacy. Similarly, in a notorious attack, Professors Walt and Mearsheimer (Harvard colleagues of Dershowitz) claim that Israel has a privileged position in the US because a "Jewish lobby" is conspiring on its behalf, completely deceiving public opinion. If it were not for American support of Israel, they go so far to say, there would be no international terrorism.

Dershowitz includes a whole range of academics, trade unionists and others who make efforts to boycott Israel, in effect demanding that it live up to standards not asked of anybody else. The United Nations and its sub-committees pass endless resolutions criticising Israel for ugly behaviour passed over in silence where other nations are concerned.

Most of this is political, driven by hypocrisy, ambition, national rivalries and the pursuit of money or power. However, the hard Left and the hard Right are like-minded Jew-haters pure and simple, and Dershowitz does not hesitate to say so and to name names. A number of the more extreme examples are self-hating Jews, sometimes Israelis. In normal circumstances, none of this might matter too much, but nowadays Iran and its proxies Hizbollah and Hamas regularly boast that they are shaping up to wipe Israel off the map. Another Holocaust appears to be in the offing, in which case Israel might be obliged to take drastic measures in order to survive. Anyone who really sees moral equivalence between Israel and its enemies is not just deluded but is endorsing the prospect of a human calamity.