Where are the protests?

Why does Israel's actions attract the comments, the protests and the opprobrium? David Aaronovitch in The Times writes

"Last week the Pakistani authorities reached a ceasefire with the insurgents, part of which is to agree that girls will no longer have the right to go to school in Swat. Where are the student occupiers and the calls for sanctions?"

And here's

Baroness Deech in the House of Lords this week: "No one can accuse this House of not focusing on the distressing situation in Gaza. In the past 12 months, there have been 161 Questions and Statements about Israel, Gaza and the Palestinians compared with, for example, 33 on Sri Lanka and 24 on Tibet. I mention Sri Lanka in particular because noble Lords will be aware that recently there was a
well attended protest in Parliament Square about the terrible attacks on the Tamils, the hospitals under siege, the killing of 70,000 people and the many more thousands who are trapped and displaced from their homes. This has attracted little opprobrium and no calls for the obliteration of Sri Lanka or talk of its brutalisation."

What is so peculiar and specific about Israel and the Palestinians that it dominates our news and attracts so much attention. Is it as simple as anti-Semitism?