New Zealand and the world can condemn the actions and attitudes of Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his far-right government.
But such opprobrium made little difference in the past and will have minimal effect in the future.
Israel has had a siege mentality since its establishment in 1948, both from its hostile neighbours and increasingly from the rest of the world.
Troubles since January have seen more than 90 Palestinians and at least 19 Israelis and foreigners killed.
The Israeli raid of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem sparked rocket attacks from Gaza, Lebanon and even Syria.
Israel, of course, responded with rockets and bombs of its own in the customary tit-for-tat.
The violence was described as the most alarming in 17 years, though it was carefully modulated on both sides.
Last week, too, several thousand, including Cabinet ministers, marched to an abandoned Jewish outpost on the West Bank.
The ever-expanding settlements, many official and some not, are in a zone captured from Jordan in 1967, and are seen as a breach of international law.
Israel maintains it has historical, biblical and security ties and needs.
This, however, is the area where Palestinian Arabs envisage an independent state.
Mr Netanyahu’s government is encouraging further settlement expansion and has granted recognition to several illegal outposts.
Mr Netanyahu has reasons to spurn any efforts by New Zealand. In late 2016 New Zealand and Senegal promoted Security Council resolution 2334. It said the Israeli settlements were in Palestinian territory, were a "flagrant violation" of international law and undermined a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It was passed 14-0, with the United States abstaining.
Israel, with Mr Netanyahu in power at the time, withdrew its ambassador from Wellington and downgraded relations.
We should not forget that Israel, for all the justified criticism, is a beacon of democracy in an autocratic Middle East.
At least for now.
The government, with the shadow of corruption prosecutions hanging over Mr Netanyahu, attempted "judicial reform".
It would have made the Supreme Court subordinate to the government and allowed politicians to appoint judges.
Encouragingly, hundreds of thousands of Israelis — and not just liberals — demonstrated against the advance to authoritarianism. Mr Netanyahu, in the face of falling popularity, has suspended the changes.
He was also forced to reinstate his defence minister, whom he fired after the minister spoke out against the reforms.
The United States, usually Israel’s strongest ally, has viewed developments with concern. President Joe Biden has said Israel could not head down the autocratic road.
Preoccupied with Ukraine and increasing tensions with China, it wants Israel and the Middle East to be as settled as possible.
Massive US aid to Israel, about $US3.3 billion ($NZ5.3 billion) plus $US500 billion ($NZ800 billion) in missile development collaboration, has also been questioned, although this is unlikely to change.
Israel’s fight for survival and its, at times, bunker mentality, is understandable when so many of its neighbours, most prominently Iran, want it wiped off the earth.
Israel was established as a refuge for Jews in the wake of the Holocaust and the genocide of six million Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators.
Tomorrow, as it happens, is the 80th anniversary of the start of a significant occurrence in the history of the Jewish people, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
It was the largest single Jewish revolt in the Second World War.
Nonetheless, the long-oppressed of history should not become oppressors.
Similarly, scepticism should be applied to the practices and attitudes of Hamas and Palestinian "liberation" fighters.
They are in no hurry for a peaceful settlement.
At the same time, the policies and approach of Mr Netanyahu and his government are making peace an even more distant prospect.
