Spot the discrepancy

It seems to be the cholera that's finally done it in Zimbabwe. Everyone from Gordon Brown to Raila Odinga insists Mugabe must go.

Rightly so. Zimbabwe's democracy was bulldozed in 2002. The members of SADC (the Southern African Development Community) and most especially, South Africa, under Thabo Mbeki, must bear the blame, and the permanent historical shame, of abandoning the people of Zimbabwe by refusing to intervene.

But now cast your eyes a little further North on the globe. To a tiny strip of land along the red sea where 1.5 million Palestinians are held in the world's largest concentration camp.

Gaza.

In 2006, Palestine's Hamas party was elected to office, by popular democratic vote. Israel responded by imposing collective punishment on the people of Gaza. A relentless blockade, that continues to this day, on food, water, medical supplies, basic spare parts to enable power supplies, sewage treatment.

The impact has been devastating. A massive humanitarian crisis - starvation, trauma, epidemic disease - is unfolding in Gaza.

The silence from world leaders, as they bray for the head of Mugabe on a platter, is deafening.