This past month saw Chechen rebels take several hundred Russians hostage in a movie theater at gunpoint. Later in the week, Russia ended the crisis, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 120 hostages and many of the rebels. The world blinked at the deaths and then moved on.

At no point did the media refer to the Chechens as activists; at the very least they were called militants, if not terrorists. There were no broad condemnations against Russia, no calls for Russia to negotiate and certainly no criticism of President Putin when he said Russia would hunt down terrorists.

In fact, U.S. President Bush and British Prime Minister Blair both applauded Putin for handling the crisis so decisively.

Let's assume for a moment that it had been Israel rather than Russia. Perhaps the world view would be something like this then:

"Chechen activists were trapped in a movie theater in Jerusalem with hundreds of civilians. The Israeli Defense Forces stormed in with utter disregard for civilian casualties and released a paralyzing gas, which resulted in the deaths of many civilians and many of the activists.

"The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution against Israel for its war crimes against the activists, failure to resolve the crisis peacefully and violations of the Geneva Convention resulting in the deaths of civilians."

Why is it that when Israel retaliates against terrorists, the world cries foul, but when Russia retaliates, resulting in more civilian casualties than Israeli retaliation, the world applauds?

The double standard is appalling.