By David Lazarus

The US State Department in 2014 condemned Israel as one of the most “unacceptable” countries in the world, just behind North Korea.

Secretary of State John Kerry hosts Twitter chat – St Dept Image

According to an article published last week by Foreign Policy, over the past year the Obama Administration State Department cited Israel for “unacceptable behavior” more times than Pakistan, Russia, Egypt, China, Afghanistan and Iraq. The article examined how many times a country’s actions were condemned as “unacceptable,” and Israel came in fourth, right after Syria, Iran and North Korea.

Most of the State Department’s criticisms came in response to Israeli announcements for plans to build housing in Jerusalem. The study also found that the US government panned out unprecedented amounts of condemnation towards Israel for civilian casualties during the summer war in Gaza.

The absurd and arbitrary way in which the United States condemns her allies more that her enemies only serves to render Washington’s pronouncements meaningless in the eyes of most Israelis. How can building homes in Jerusalem be condemned on par with the actions of nations repeatedly engaged in aggressive and murderous violence towards their own civilian populations with absolutely no regard for human rights?

As journalist Micah Zenko pointed out in the Foreign Policy article, US officials regularly condemn actions as unacceptable “but then do very little in response to prevent or deter those actions from reoccurring.”

The fact that these ongoing condemnations are hollow does not prevent the US State Department and others from regularly castigating Israel in the international diplomatic arena. Israel’s Ynet news portal found that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon used the word “concerned” 140 times in 2014 in statements about world events, and Israel was the most “concerning” country of all.

The US government just keeps on pretending that their shameful condemnations of Israel are useful, clueless to the fact that no one is listening. Is it any wonder that Israel refuses to heed to the onslaught of mumbo-jumbo condemnations emanating from the White House and the UN?

Indeed, it would be foolish for Israel to even respond to the endless and empty pronouncements of American and international discontent. King Solomon understood long ago that it is utter folly to answer absurd and silly arguments as if you were dealing with a sensible person.

“Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him.” Proverbs 26:4

View original Israel Today publication at: http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/25737/Default.aspx