Trite posuers; Boycotting Israel

Patrick Porter at Oxblog raises an objection to the latest effort to measure the pulse on the irrepressible move in Britain to boycott Israeli academics. This has long been a left-wing effort in the UK which kowtows as much as it can to the nation's Islamic minorities. But why are the labor leaders in academia so selective? Is not Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro worthy of a boycott or two for their suppression of free speech?

This is becoming a bit tiring don't you think? Here's more:

Academic trade unions should be making more efforts to direct their solidarity towards other fellow unionists in countries where it is needed, and where human rights violations are in many ways far worse: Iraq, Iran, China, etc.

And finally, some effort at balance would be nice. The state of Israel is one of the few states on earth that receives continual demands for its extinction, having survived several wars of aggression itself. That this is barely mentioned in these debates suggests that this is not being approached in a fair-minded spirit.