Amnesty has websites for its branches in, among other countries, Australia, Canada, England, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, The Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand and the USA.

On August 21, 2005, the websites of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch dealt with the suffering of people in Chad, Germany, Bangladesh, Morocco, Burundi. Nepal, Nigeria, Iraq, China, Uzbekistan, Belarus, the Maldives, Uganda, Kenya, the Republic of Congo, Canada, Jordan, Nepal, Iran, Egypt, Libya, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

Notwithstanding the hours and days of pain-filled images being broadcast around the world from the Gaza Strip, however, neither group was making one peep Sunday about the state machinery that was driving thousands of men, women and children from their homes in 21 beautiful and productive towns in the Gaza Strip.

They have not written a word about the fact that bulldozers are smashing down gates, and soldiers and policemen are going into the homes of peaceful civilians and pulling them out by their arms and legs.

There is no condemnation at the desecration of synagogues; nothing to say about the fact that the homes, schools and houses of worship built lovingly by these people – these human beings – are going to be demolished; no outrage at the monstrous injustice that will see murderers and terrorists who have waged a cruel war against these civilians for years benefiting from this uprooting and destruction.

It takes no imagination whatsoever to wonder how AI and HRW would be responding if Israel was pulling thousands of Arabs out of their homes and sending them elsewhere.

If it was Arabs who were being transferred, human rights groups everywhere would be up in arms, clamoring for the world to intervene.

If instead of Jews, the Gaza Strip was being cleansed of its other ethnic population, cries of outrage would be reverberating through the United Nations General Assembly en route to the Security Council, accompanied by demands for the instant slapping on of sanctions and possibly even foreign military intervention to stop those gross violations of human rights.

But because it is happening to the Jews, no violation of those rights is taking place.

The massive international campaign to de-legitimize Israel and to demonize the Jewish “settlers” has been successful, probably beyond their enemies’ wildest dreams.

Israel lost this battle when it lost, in international perception, its ownership of the land.

The Arabs have insisted day and night, year in year out, that this land is theirs. Even though it never has been theirs, the whole world now believes it is. Validating their claim, Sharon has given them the first part on a plate.

By their own admission then, the Jews are the interlopers, the land grabbers, the expansionists, the thieves.

No-one is going to come to their aid. No-one will plead for the preservation of their rights. In the Gaza Strip, only the Arabs have rights. So, too, it will be in the “West Bank” and in “East” Jerusalem.

With the active participation of its leaders, the Jewish state is losing the battle for its land.