The Only Democracy in the Mideast....
BG9 said:
Israel is not the only democracy in the Middle East. So is Tunisia.
Not to quibble but Tunisia is in North Africa. Its a 2900 km drive from Tunis to Port Suez. One could argue that Iran and Iraq are more or less democracies but I doubt you will hear that point made by pro Israeli folks.
Klinker said:
BG9 said:Not to quibble but Tunisia is in North Africa. Its a 2900 km drive from Tunis to Port Suez. One could argue that Iran and Iraq are more or less democracies but I doubt you will hear that point made by pro Israeli folks.
Israel is not the only democracy in the Middle East. So is Tunisia.
The definition of who is in the Middle East (formerly known as Near East) varies depending on source.
The Economist, a supposedly prestigious journal, even claimed Tunisia is the sole fully fledged democracy in the Middle East.
Jerusalem Post Middle East
HAS TUNISIA REPLACED ISRAEL AS THE MIDDLE EAST'S ONLY GENUINE DEMOCRACY?
...
Two years ago, the prestigious news journal The Economist raised eyebrows when it wrote a feature on the Arab Spring in which it listed Tunisia as the Middle East's sole "fully fledged" democracy.
An axiom of Western political discourse has held that Israel was the region's lone democratic country, yet its policies in the West Bank have instead rendered it a regime that maintains a "democratic facade" - at least according to The Economist.
HAS TUNISIA REPLACED ISRAEL AS THE MIDDLE EAST'S ONLY GENUINE DEMOCRACY?
I was going to suggest that we define "democracy" but I see we must first define "middle east".
Trump and Netanyahu are playing by the same fascism playbook. The more you can make an us-vs-them, and play on the fear of the "other", the more likely you are to be elected.
Places in perpetual war provide great backstories for "us-vs-them," giving Netanyahu a fairly easy way to play fascist politics. If Syria had elections, and a fascist narcissist politician wanted to play the "I'll make you safe from "them" by getting rid of "them" strategy, it would be likely to work.
Trump has to promote the propaganda of some scary invaders (Muslims, immigrants/refugees) of the US in order to maintain his use of the "us-vs-them" fascist playbook.
https://psmag.com/news/trump-and-the-playbook-of-fascist-politics
Unfortunately, as we can see within our own country with the fabricated threats, fascist playbooks often work extremely well.
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I have been thinking about Israel and Syria today. One is a democracy and the other is a dictatorship. For the last 10 years, the citizens of the democracy have reliably elected and reelected a far right racist criminal to lead their country. In the dictatorship, on the other hand, hundreds of thousands of people have fought and died to rid their country of its tyrannical war crimes committing dictator.
Now, I don't know what sort of leader the Syrians would elect if they held free elections or even if such elections would be possible in a country where the fabric of society has been torn apart with such sadistic violence but I do wonder whether the current Israeli democracy should really be advertised as a selling point for the nation. These people didn't have their monstrous leader forced upon them, they chose him.
ETA: To be clear, I am not equating Netanyahoo with Assad. I am just looking at outcomes.