Isreal's press is more critical of Isreali realities than our press is critical of such things.

Haaretz, here. Perhaps, just perhaps, it is that comparison sentence and headline that has our mainstream media hounds off this fresh meat:

Rights watchdog: After U.S., Israel is least egalitarian country in West
By Tomer Zarchin

The past year has seen a dramatic rise in the number of violent attacks perpetrated by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the territories. Yet, only 8 percent of the police investigations of settler violence result in indictments. This finding is contained in a new report, published yesterday by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), to mark the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The report states that in most instances of innocent civilian bystanders being killed in the territories, no investigation is opened. Also, only a small number of the cases that are investigated result in an indictment.

ACRI reports that in most of Israel's mixed towns, including Ramle, Lod, Acre, Haifa and Jaffa, Arab citizens suffer from discrimination. The infrastructure in the Arab neighborhoods is neglected, public buildings and parks are lacking, there is a poor education system and health and welfare services are insufficient. The past decade has seen an increase in the gaps in life expectancy between Jews and Arabs and also between the center and the periphery. As such, the infant mortality rate in the periphery is double that in the country's center. Moreover, there are fewer hospital beds and doctors as well as less medical equipment per capita in the periphery, as compared to the center.

The report asserts that, after the United States, Israel is the least egalitarian country in the West. Although there has been an increase in the state's revenues from taxes in recent years, the government's spending on social issues has decreased. During the past 13 years the funding of the health basket has been eroded by some 44 percent, while at the same time there has been a 50-percent increase in the rate of personal spending on health, as part of the total public and private expenditure.

Less government attention to health care, more personal spending needed. How could they ever compare that to us?