Maurice found this and sends it on for us to share.<\/p>\n
Upheaval in the Middle East. The West is panic stricken. Its own
\npolitical systems (the result of hundreds of years of slow evolution)
\nlead it to believe that the will of the people is paramount. So the mob
\ntakes over. The West supports what it thinks is democratic change but
\nin fact after a false dawn of moderation, gets a crueler, nastier
\nregime, more autocratic regime which poses a far bigger threat to world
\npeace. For its pains, or incompetence, the West is vilified and
\nrejected.<\/p>\n
Beware of what you wish for. This happened thirty years ago in Shia
\nIran. It happened with Hamas in Gaza. It happened with Hezbollah in
\nLebanon. It is happening again now in Egypt. I have no doubt that out
\nof the turmoil it will be the Muslim Brotherhood that will eventually
\nemerge as the government and the first thing it will do will break off
\ndiplomatic relations and repudiate the peace treaty with Israel. The
\nsame may happen in Jordan next. At best Egypt will go the way of
\nTurkey; at worst, Iran.<\/p>\n
Autocrats who lose the goodwill of the major part of their citizens are
\ndoomed eventually. But what do you get instead? It is often said that
\nthe Arab world is not amenable to democracy. The “Arab Street” is a
\nprimitive, prejudiced mob, lusting for revenge, not peace. Perhaps, but
\nI wonder if what fuels this is just desperation. It seems to me there
\nis a very powerful and disturbing religious undercurrent. In many
\nsituations religion often loses its domination when things go well;
\nmaterialism wins. But when economic life gets tough, the fanatics offer
\nthe only hope–if not here and now then later on. Mubarak and the rest
\nof them have failed in their corruption and their inability to improve
\nthe lot of the majority of their people. Religion is the obvious answer.<\/p>\n
When nasty, corrupt strongmen are deposed on a wave of popular
\nopposition, they are always replaced, perhaps not immediately but soon,
\nby fanatical fundamentalist, clerically dominated absolutists like
\nHezbollah, Hamas–the sort of people who would rather shoot up and then
\ndemolish a Western-funded leisure center in Gaza than allow young men
\nand women to have fun together. Yet many in the West would rather pat
\nthemselves on the back and feel good about supporting fanaticism, so
\nlong as it is in someone else’s back yard.<\/p>\n
But Islamic fundamentalism is not only a result of poverty,
\ndisillusionment, and political oppression. The Wahhabis spread their
\nfanaticism from wealth and opulence in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps it is Arab
\ninferiority, because it once stood proud powerful but now has been
\novertaken by others and all it has left is the wealth that nature
\nplaced underneath its backsides rather than its once vaunted
\nintellectual creativity.<\/p>\n
Islam was not always repressive. Under the Umayyads who originated in
\nDamascus a thousand years ago, it spread enlightenment, tolerance, and
\ncivilization into the barbaric remains of much of the old Roman Empire.
\nThe Abbasids in Baghdad and the Safavids presided over one of the
\ngreatest eras of intellectual and poetic culture in human history. The
\nCrusaders were a bunch of bloodthirsty thugs in comparison to the
\ntolerance, dignity, and sensitivity of Saladin. The Ottomans under
\nSuleiman the Magnificent looked down on the primitive intolerance of
\nthe Christian West and welcomed the Jews it expelled.<\/p>\n
It is the mix of religion and social and political circumstances that
\nis the powder keg. All religions have good humanitarian sides to them,
\nbut they also all have jingoistic, exclusionary, dark depths too.
\nReligion itself is not necessarily opposed to democracy. There are
\nplenty of examples throughout Jewish history and texts where the will
\nof the populace has to be and was taken into consideration, and even
\nmonarchs being subject to constitutions.<\/p>\n
Look at non- religious examples. Initially the West was deluded into
\nbelieving that after the Soviet Union collapsed Russia could become a
\ntruly democratic state. In fact it has turned into a corrupt
\nkleptocracy, the largest and most powerful mafia state in the world,
\nwhere opponents of the regime are murdered or jailed, and justice is
\nbought by the ruling powers and the corrupt new “upper classes”.<\/p>\n
Is China such a wonderful alternative? It might be dynamic materially
\nand get the trains to run on time. But it supports violent and
\nrepressive petty dictators from North Korea, Myanmar, to Zimbabwe. It
\nsuppresses its citizens’ freedom of thought and speech. It still
\nvenerates Mao, responsible for more deaths than any other figure in
\nhuman history, a sexually corrupt, evil man. Are these examples we want
\nto see spread?<\/p>\n
All political systems go through upheavals and have their bloody
\nconsequences. The West is wrong to interfere. As Edward Lutwak has
\noften reiterated, whenever Western powers intervene in conflicts and
\npolitical situations not their own, they inevitably prolong the agony.
\nBesides, supporting dictatorships elsewhere in the Arab world as the
\nWest does, its moral authority is nil. It might take a hundred years
\nbefore the Arab world learns from its own mistakes, but eventually they
\nwill realize that neither violence , oppression nor fanaticism are the
\nway to succeed.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the frightening fact is that Israel is now faced with
\nthe possibility of ideological enemies on all sides, ones that will
\ncall for blood. And I fear the appeasing West is blind. I am not sure
\nthat if Israel were invaded Obama’s USA would come to its aid the way
\nNixon did. I fear the crazy world might cut the ground from underneath
\nit.<\/p>\n
You know by now I detest most of Israeli politics. I cannot stand
\nfundamentalism of any brand and I want to see state and religion as far
\napart as possible. But if Israel is a mess, it is still a far more
\ncivilized place to live and thrive in than Hamasland or Ayatollah Hell.
\nThat\u2019s why Israel\u2019s Muslims, for all their disadvantages, would still
\nrather stay put. For all its faults, Israel is a much better place for
\nthe ordinary citizen to live in than its Islamic neighbors.<\/p>\n
But for some reason the world prefers the narrative of violent
\nfundamentalism to imperfect democracy. If logic won\u2019t help perhaps a
\nlittle more fundamentalism might help them see the light of day! The
\nagony of the Egyptians is, I am afraid, going to be prolonged and it
\nwon\u2019t be the Children of Israel’s fault.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maurice found this and sends it on for us to share. Upheaval in the Middle East. The West is panic stricken. Its own political systems (the result of hundreds of years of slow evolution) lead it to believe that the … Continue reading