But the silence and seeming insensitivity of the Israeli mainstream in the face of all this is not merely a case of judicial or even moral flaccidity.

ECONOMIST: Israel

Some of America's critics counsel a generalised flaccidity, in the style of Mrs Megawati: keep a low profile and do nothing at all that might stir up the hornets.

ECONOMIST: Bali, Iraq and now a nuclear North Korea

When Mr Abdulmutallab failed to detonate his bomb last Christmas, for example, Mr Obama's Republican foes were quick to accuse the vacationing president of flaccidity in face of danger.

ECONOMIST: Lexington