Alex, I wonder if the phenomenon you describe owes something to the fact that some - some - on the left just aren't especially interested in the welfare of Palestinians - except insofar as it allows them to attack US foreign policy or Israeli action against Islamic terrorism or to make some other predictable left-liberal talking point. If Clinton had made this announcement, it would have allowed them to contrast his approach unfavourably with a real or perceived 'right-wing' or 'pro-Israeli' approach. But as it's Bush who made it, that's not an option.
The same is also true of some areas of domestic policy, with some only ever showing concern for black people, for example, when doing so allows them to accuse their political opponents of racism.
As has been noted by others, there's no obvious reason for someone of sincere and consistent sympathy for Muslims to be far less concerned by the higher death toll of Muslims in Chechnyan conflict than by the situation in the West Bank and Gaza - but the amount of commentary and coverage each receives, and the relative quantities of bile the Russian and Israeli governments each face from the international left, tell their own story.
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