the wrong end of the telescope

I can see how it happens, yes. I've always argued against the idea that a people who have been subjected to horrifying things should be a better people as a result, because that is hardly fair, but they still have to be a people who live in the world. And the responsibilities of a nation have to include working with existing international law. "No right but our right" doesn't work if we're to keep the world from having another Holocaust, if that makes sense.