I have written before about Israel, and astute readers will be aware that it is not my favourite country in the world. Since then, four incidents have occurred which have exacerbated my feelings towards this country.

The first is the oldest. An agreement from the 1970s between Israel and South Africa has recently been released by South Africa. It reveals that Israel had agreed to provide South Africa with nuclear weapons. This is not a problem in itself – other countries at the time had nuclear capabilities and would occasionally share information. The first problem is that Israel has always refused to disclose whether it has a nuclear programme. The second, and much larger one – is that Israel has been campaigning vigorously for the UN to take action against Iran for its nuclear programme. I can understand Israeli concerns, given previous Iranian statements about wiping Israel off the map. But actions and words are two entirely different things, and Israel is the most belligerent of the states in the area. We don't need to cast our minds back too far to remember Saddam Hussein failing to deny the presence of such weapons, and for no other reason than because he wanted to make other nations cautious of him. The Middle East is a volatile area and it makes sense to have defensive capabilities, but to criticise others for possible possession of things that you yourself won't admit to having seems duplicitous at best.

The second is the scandal under which Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, used stolen passports from anumber of Western nations – including Ireland, Germany, Britain, Australia and France, several of which are purported friends of Israel's – to get in to Dubai to murder a Hamas agent. Israel has done similar things in the past, including forging the passports of two New Zealanders.

The third is the killing of nine activists who were part of a flotilla attempting to deliver aid to Palestinians. Israeli Navy boats issued a radio warning to them to retreat – never mind that they were 150km from land – and then boarded the boats once the flotilla kept sailing. While it is true that some weapons were on board, they paled in comparison to those possessed by the Israelis. The attack occurred as many of the Muslims on the boats were starting their obligatory prayers. Based on past incidents, one can only imagine that if a similar threat had been issued to, and not by, Israel, the Israeli response would have been similarly decisive.

The incredible nature of this incident reached its peak when Israel described it as a publicity stunt. I cannot see anyone getting away with calling an incident that involved nine Israeli deaths as a publicity stunt.

Finally, Israel has started building houses in East Jerusalem. This might not sound like a bad or contentious thing, as everyone knows that Jerusalem is the Israeli capital – but there's more to the story than that. When Israel was formed, Jerusalem was designated an international city, the Western part of which belonged to Israel. Most countries do not actually recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and have their embassies in Tel Aviv instead. Israel has passed a law under which its capital is a 'whole and united' Jerusalem, but this is recognised by virtually none of the UN.

So when it builds houses on land that no other country recognises as being a part of it, that is a very confrontational act.

Yet despite these incidents, Israel is still the international community's favourite son in the Middle East. American support wavered only briefly, when the US Vice President was in Israel while construction started in East Jerusalem, and other countries seem to be taking the lead from the United States. All have been very reticent in criticising Israel – even the response to the passport issue was muted. Nor has anyone questioned Israel's right to possess nuclear weapons, though that has happened for all other countries to have developed nuclear capabilities, or even been suspected of doing so, since the end of the Second World War. For that matter, nobody seems to have asked whether they indeed have such weapons, and what they intend to do with them.

It amazed me recently that the European Union – which I have also written about previously – is planning to impose sanctions against Iran for its possible unclear programme,when it knows about Israel's programme and has done nothing,especially given that Israel has breached the laws of many of these countries in producing forged passports, and that neither Palestinenor Iran has done anything recently that adversely affects any members of the EU.

Turkey, the country with the most citizens affected by the raid on the flotilla, is not a member of the EU (even if it is likely to be one day), and is not treated as a major player in world affairs. This has probably silenced some of the potential critics.

I suspect that Israel will survive diplomatically only as long as the United States' patience remains.Until then, unfortunately, passports will be forged, Palestinians will be forced out of land that they have a very real claim to, states no more belligerent than Israel with no more real nuclear programmes will have sanctions applied while Israel sails through untouched and any protestors will be at the whim of the Israeli military. All of these things sadden me immensely, and I hope that the international community starts to change its way of thinking.