Modern-day tale of David and Goliath

Political leaders on left and right supporting Israel

- NIALL MCCRAE

IN the 1960s, mass demonstrations were held at American universities against the war in Vietnam.

Officially, both major political parties supported the futile intervention, but for the Democrat administration, this was a particularly contentious policy.

How could politicians who claim to stand for civil liberties and a fairer world send so many young men to their deaths while slashing and burning a poor, feudal land far away? Society turned against the war, and the protestors could take credit for their righteous resistance.

Today, American campuses are again a scene of large protests, this time against the pulverising of Gaza by Israeli armed forces, funded and supplied by the U.S. government.