When it comes to Israel, Independent columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown belongs with the bashers rather than the backslappers. So some readers were left rubbing their eyes on Monday when she suggested that Israel's supporters may have a point in complaining that it is unfairly picked on by the left.

As civilians die on the Arab streets, she wondered why "good people have focused only on Palestine/Israel for more than a half a century and not attended to the brutality and oppression endemic in Islamic regimes?" Why no mass demos outside the Syrian, Saudi or Bahraini embassies here, she asked. While Israel was still to be held to account, she said: "We must stop dumping blame on it for all Middle Eastern grievances."

Some of the relentless focus on Israel could even "rise out of a deep stream of antisemitism".

But don't expect her to come to a Yom Ha'atzmaut party just yet. She can still write that Israel and its "global cheerleaders" are guilty of crimes against humanity.