Any left or progressive organisation to the left of Genghiz Khan has been condemning the Assad regime, as you can see from the Gillard Goverment, the Greens and every other group I can think of.

Second, the issue about Khader Adnan is not that if he is a good guy or not (I don’t think he is by the way), but that such matters have to be tried in the courts in a reasonable amount of time, if a country is to be considered a reasonably functional democracy. But since Israeli democracy does not apply to the Palestinians, they are subject to a widely abused system. This is much the same as the abuse that was committed by the British in Northern Ireland, aslso a functional democracy.

It is also not true that scant attention has been paid as to why Adnan was detained. The fact is that people dispute the reason why he was detained. They proper way to test this is in open court.

Thus when you say ‘a balance must be maintained between the rights of the individual and the ability of the state to ensure that its citizens can survive and exist,’ you re actually ignoring the fact that there is virtually no limit to detention– this is not a balance, this is a blatant abuse of state power that has to be limited.

Even Menahem Begin of all people, thought that the use of administrative detention was a dreadful abuse of mandate era law. There has been widespread abuse of the system by the Israeli government over many many years, whether it applies to Palestinians and settlers by the way. Most recently, there has been a scandal involving detention of young boys. http://www.btselem.org/administrative_detention.

How the Syrians abuse their citizens should not be used to justify Israeli abuse.

A failed attempt at hasbarah Emily.

Dershowitz has made a career out of hasbara and slander of progressive voices, most prominently Norman Finkelstein.