905 wrote:

Yes, there's a certain amount of circularity - the conflict is important because the US and the West treat it as important...and why?

This is true, but it excites other areas too. The UN spends more tikme on the Israel-Palestine issue than any other, about 20-25% of their time goes to this conflict. Tis is largely due to the Muslim nations bringing it up the whole time. I've always wondered why Russia seems so interested. Does China have an opinion?[/quote]

I'm not sure what China's opinion on Israel is but in a real sense it doesn't matter. Pro Israeli lobbying in Washington ensures that it remains constantly on the agenda there. Against that the opinions of the Chinese are pratically irrelevant. Thinking about it though, Robert Fisk wrote that Israel broke an embargo and exported weapons technology and expertese to China in the 1980's so I'm guessing its not hostile.

That is an amazing statistic though. I reckon there are other stsates that are happy to let so much of the UN's time and worlds attention to be taken up with this issue.