Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Our friend Greg from JR Telegraph has a piece in today's Boston Globe that unabashedly contrasts Israel positively with its anti-Democratic neighbors, talks about the rockets and trauma of Sderot, and explains the Israeli elections and the Avigdor Lieberman phenomenon without demonizing him: A voice from Boston, on the Israeli elections. In short, I think someone must have kidnapped the editorial staff of the paper.
On February 10th, Israelis voted for a new Knesset. The most remarkable fact about these elections is that elections took place at all. Democratic elections are unheard of in this corner of the planet.
East of Israel you will find the kingdom of Jordan. The northern border is shared by the national-socialist regime of Syria, where president Hafez Assad passed his presidency to his son Bashir, and Lebanon that is controlled by Hizballa, an organization on the US foreign terrorist organizations list. The Southern neighbor, Egypt has been run since 1981 by Hosni Mubarak who is planning on passing the country on to his son Gamal. So while Israeli democracy is not perfect, it is functioning and fairly robust.
The elections of 2009 signified a few major shifts in Israeli politics - the demise of Labor, a convincing win for the Israeli Right, and the emergence of Soviet-born Avigdor Lieberman as a political king-maker. How did this happen?...
Explanation follows in the rest of the piece.
