Why No Arab Rage Over Darfur?

Israel's wrongs against Palestine are "minor" compared to other modern conflicts—yet Arab leaders continue to cry bloody murder over Palestine while ignoring and covering up atrocities in Darfur, writes Martin Peretz, editor-in-chief of The New Republic. Darfur "does not trouble the conscience of Islam," Peretz writes. "They are otherwise engaged in the hyper-drama of Palestine."

Peretz admits he too is obsessed with the "catastrophe that befell my people" and Israel's fate, but accuses Arab leaders of hypocrisy. "Arabs do not care a fig" for Palestinians and rarely hire them, he writes, while oil Arabs duck the self-assessed Palestine tax. But Arab nations' tacit approval of Darfur is last straw for Peretz: "It is the blood of their blood who are committing the genocide." (More Darfur stories.)