On Human Rights

It seems to me that if human rights are to mean anything they have to be universal. Winning the war does not make all of ones actions moral. Hence I am very disturbed by the recent rehabilitation of Stalin in Russia on the basis that all his crimes are justified by the victory over the Nazis. This is one of the reasons why I have always been puzzled about why do people who otherwise oppose discrimination and human rights violations in places like South Africa during apartheid support similar Israeli practices against the Palestinians? This seems to be based upon judging people on the basis of their identity rather than on the basis of their actions. Just because a government calls itself democratic does not give it the right to engage in ethnic cleansing, torture and other human rights violations.