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Achieving a Palestinian Democracy Should be the US Goal

Reader comment on item: Hope for the Middle East [as Palestinians Face Defeat]

Submitted by Leon Segal (United States), May 22, 2002 at 10:44

Agreed totally with your article #213 on "Hope for Middle East", as always.
For another related article/subject for you to consider:

There is a real possibility that the only true Arab democracy to emerge out of all this could be a Palestinian State, once they get rid of Arafat of course. This may seem unreal and far-fetched at this point, but the Palestinians are in the best position to see (and envy) what their enemy/neighbor has accomplished and how its (even Arab) citizens live, vs. how they live under Arafat's dictatorship/militias AND how their Arab cousins live in Syria, Lebanon, and Saudia Arabia. If Palestine could be democraticized (is that the correct verb?) ---in that case, the larger U.S. interest of starting to get rid of Arab dictatorships would be started from within the disfunctional Arab world.

When some of the other nearby Arab countries start to envy/see the hope and living conditions the Palestinians could likely achieve once they stop their stupid and counter-productive--and futile--war against Israel, Palestine would become the real motivator for democratization of the backward Arab world, more so than Turkey, which while Moslem is largely non-Arab, and of course is not in the midst of the geography.

Does anyone in our myopic and Arabist State Department see this far ahead? If so, they should be pushing Arafat out as soon as possible, in line with their recently stated goal of seeing Arab democracies emerge. In any case, Israel is the key, and the ally of the U.S. in all this---AND in our (the U.S.) war on terrorism. If Israel were a dictatorship, the Palestinians would have no role model.

Right now, the countries that might fear a Palestinian democracy the most are Saudia Arabia and the military dictatorships. They would not want Palestine to be the role model for their people.

I'm sure you get the idea, there are other benefits (such as minimization of the stupid suicide killers--does any democracy produce any of these?) and you can elaborate on this if you are interested.
Submitting....

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Reader comments (34) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
2Palestinians' Shoes... [114 words]Katherine WilliamsOct 21, 2002 22:293168
Western Ideology is Harmful in the Middle East [362 words]Mike NargizianMay 27, 2002 02:23485
Response to comment: Two States is Suicide for Both! [17 words]William J. SturmMay 26, 2002 23:30483
As Long As Iran and Iraq Are Players Arafat Won't Be Defeated [283 words]Joe LeviMay 25, 2002 06:41478
1"The more destruction I see, the stronger I get" [221 words]Avi E SmithMay 23, 2002 11:57469
Two States is Suicide for Both! [303 words]Mike NargizianMay 23, 2002 00:42462
Hussein Ibish--Is He For Real? [51 words]Grace M. VogtMay 22, 2002 21:15460
A Different Ratio? [52 words]Boris GalinskyMay 22, 2002 17:33458
Shut Down Resources for Wreaking Terror [47 words]Ella SmithMay 22, 2002 15:20454
Moderate Muslims Must Be Strengthened [41 words]David W. LincolnMay 22, 2002 13:38451
Another Rationale for Palestinian Violence [162 words]Yochanan ben DanielMay 22, 2002 11:32450
Is a Change of Heart Possible? [199 words]David KrossMay 22, 2002 11:13449
I am confused [118 words]Dark PlanetMay 22, 2002 11:02448
Achieving a Palestinian Democracy Should be the US Goal [339 words]Leon SegalMay 22, 2002 10:44446
Sharon Does Not Get the Credit He Deserves [195 words]Ron PollandMay 22, 2002 09:21443
The State Department is Part of the Problem [70 words]Pete GuerrieriMay 22, 2002 04:08438
Hope is eternal! [247 words]William J. SturmMay 22, 2002 02:14436
Who is Condemning the Violence? [182 words]David GerstmanMay 21, 2002 22:07434
Palestinian Terror Will Continue Indefinitely [73 words]Stanley YarkinMay 21, 2002 22:07433
The Head of the Snake [341 words]Stan BeerMay 21, 2002 21:27432
Two Comments [255 words]I BrodskyMay 21, 2002 21:08431
Positive Views [15 words]Tom FoltzMay 21, 2002 21:08430
Economy Holding Up? [148 words]Harriet TarlowMay 21, 2002 20:01427
End of Conflict? [24 words]Jan KarlstroemMay 21, 2002 19:11426
The Real Problem in the Middle East [102 words]Michael RifkinMay 21, 2002 18:08425
3What's the real problem of the Middle East ( the holy lands)? [548 words]Oğuzhan KonezJan 21, 2006 09:08425
Guilty of believing their own rhetoric [138 words]Mark FeldsteinMay 21, 2002 17:25424
I Hope You're Right [96 words]Bruce StevensMay 21, 2002 16:41423
The world's support gives them the sense of moving forward [153 words]Lucy TsirelsonMay 21, 2002 16:06422
Hope? [340 words]Glenn KlotzMay 21, 2002 16:02421
Accelerating Hope [64 words]Steven HessMay 21, 2002 15:33419
Is there really hope? [301 words]Ethan CoreyMay 21, 2002 15:33418
A Useful Analogy to Remember [124 words]Tomer KramerMay 21, 2002 14:46416
But what of the Islamic extremists? Saudi Arabia is not our friend [459 words]Byron SmithMay 21, 2002 13:38415

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