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A Further Perspective

A Gorgeous Spring

By on 9.27.11 @ 6:08AM

Especially now that there is a Palestinian spring as well, as we have it on good Authority.


It was appropriate for Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, to announce, “At a time when the Arab peoples affirm their quest for democracy — the Arab Spring — the time is now for the Palestinian Spring, the time for independence.”

Quite. Assimilating the events of the winter in several Arab countries to the Palestinian movement’s latest gambit — getting the UN to recognize their statehood without the counterpart that they recognize the state of Israel — makes sense. The very essence of the Palestinian national movement is to substitute itself for the Palestinian people; in this sense, Mahmoud Abbas is simply following the M.O. of his predecessor, Yassir Arafat, without the slightest regard or respect for what the Palestinian people desire. (The latest example: surveys show that the Palestinian Arab residents of Jerusalem in their crushing majority prefer to stay under the authority of the state of Israel than to be transferred to that of the proposed Palestinian state.)

There was a larger and more troubling sense, too, in which this was an appropriate (and shrewd) political move. If the Arab spring means anything, in the minds of Western, and notably American, observers, it is that democratic aspirations are on the rise in the Arab-Islamic world and we, of course, must support these. Mahmoud Abbas caught us at our own word. Journalists, analysts, and statesmen are together in explaining to us, since last December when ordinary people in Tunisia said enough of this hogra (tyrannical humiliation by cliquish regimes), that democracy is the answer to the long Arab despair. If this leads to problems, for example the coming to power through election of totalitarian movements, well then give them, as John Dewey said, more democracy.

However, it is not what happened, at least so far. In Tunisia and Egypt, the two places where the spring seems to have made its way into some kind of summer, democracy has meant replacing one clique with another, while full blown democracy may well produce regimes run by men whose thinking resembles that of the leaders of the Palestinian Hamas or the Lebanese Hezbollah. Other countries — Yemen, Syria, Libya, Bahrain — are in the midst of civil war, in which regional and tribal and sectarian allegiances are at least as important motivating forces as democratic aspirations. In still others — Morocco and, astonishingly enough, Saudi Arabia — the rulers are trying to anticipate trouble by proposing various enlargements of civil and political rights, notably as they concern women.

In calling upon our president to ditch old allies like Hosni Mubarak and Zine Ben Ali and support democracy, our neo-Wilsonians have been playing with fire. Whatever else their advice does, it will not promote democracy as we understand it and enhance American prestige and power in the region.

In the eyes of the Arabs, the “foreigner’s gift,” as Fouad Ajami put it three years ago, was to show them that the tyrants were not permanent maledictions in these unhappy lands. But the gift was spoiled. We failed to follow through. We let the Lebanese liberals — liberals in the simple classic sense of people aspiring to liberty — see their leader assassinated and their country revert to the tyranny of terrorist gangs and the Syrian oppressor we were supposed to have helped them slough off.

This was happening, mind, while we seemed incapable of policing an Iraq we supposedly had liberated from tyranny. We were being rolled by cunning factional leaders intent on using our money and military resources to destroy or neutralize their rivals. The pattern repeated itself in Afghanistan. In our incorrigible optimism, we called this a surge against terrorism, when it was a temporary return to comparative order in some parts of the countries in question, worth only as much as the ransom we paid for it and good only so long as our price and our protective services did not meet their betters.

Gaddafi, the zaim of Libya, placated us with a gesture of disarmament that may well have emboldened the tribes that rose up against him this year, but we scarcely anticipated this or encouraged it. Which is why we had no handle on the rebellion when it began and have no concept of how to control its evolution — perhaps one should say, if control sounds too harsh, how to encourage an evolution toward a liberal regime.

But this, it seems, has been the problem all along. The Wilsonians — why, after all, should they be called “neo-Wilsonians” when they show all the characteristics of the original article? — have made a fetish of democracy, for the very good reason that in Washington, democracy is a good and lucrative racket for midgets in and around the foreign policy bureaucracy who cannot point to a single democratic success story since the founding of the state of Israel, which President Harry Truman backed against the whole panoply of the very kinds of people who have been bleeding the American taxpayer on a luxury mission for democracy in the world in which, interestingly, they are the sole beneficiaries.

Promoting democracy, officially and by way of the adjuncts to officialdom which are the Washington think-tankocracy and the lesson-givers in the media, has aided and abetted the enemies of democracy. Our democracists forget that without liberty democracy is just another word for plebiscitary tyranny, whether it is the tyranny of the mob or the terror gangs or the Palestinian Authority or what have you.

Liberty, however, does not cut it with the bureaucratic mind. How are you going to turn it into a budget item? You can have democracy-promotion organizations and claim to need money for showing the hoi polloi how to run free and fair elections and have a free press, and none of it gets anywhere because the elections will be either rigged or annulled, anyway, and the free press will belong to whoever has the connections necessary to get paper, printing equipment, or their latest gizmo substitutes, which means connections to the same people who have been quietly taking the place of the Tunisian protesters or the Egyptian Minutemen who whoever we thought would win out.

Note, in this connection, that it was all along a symptom of how little we understood about what was going on that we really thought the Tunisian “people” or the Egyptian “people” were rising up against the tyrants. Some Tunisians and Egyptians did, as did some Iranians. As did, at that, some American colonists. Most people in these upheaval situations lie low, and well they might. They understand instinctively that the fight is between various types of ambitious crazies on one side, calling themselves whatever you want, socialists, democrats, islamists, constitutionalists, sectional and tribal forces on the other, and, behind the scenes, members of the commercial, military, or religious elites that one way or another, and sometimes after a certain amount of bloodletting, are going to — re-arrange the chairs.

The reason the upheaval worked in our blessed country is that the freedom-loving crazies were wise and strong enough to convince some of the other parties that their plan for what-happens-after was the best in terms of keeping all the various interests more or less square. Are we seriously going to believe there are any Hamiltons or Jeffersons or Franklins, let alone a Washington, among the desperate and cunning leaders of the Libyan National Transition Council? Or in the committees or commissions that are presumably keeping the lids on, for now, in Egypt and Tunisia? Significantly, few of our Wilsonians seem to be paying the slightest attention to this minor question.

However, if Mahmoud Abbas effectively appropriates the notion that it is springtime in Palestine, the Wilsonians will have only themselves to blame when the whole world begins to echo the line that is sure to follow, which is that only the U.S. and its free and democratic ally, Israel, are responsible for the return of winter.

About the Author

Roger Kaplan, a Washington-based writer, covers the Middle East and Africa (and tennis) for The American Spectator.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (46) |

Jack in Wi.| 9.27.11 @ 6:58AM

If the Palistinains love in Israel love being in Israel so much, there is a simple soltution to the whole problem. Make Israel Palistine one, secular country with equal rights for all. No one worked harder or longer for and end to Jim Crow in this country or an end to Apartheid in South Africa then the Jews. The same solution is availible in the Middle East. Integrate Israel now. Equal rights for all.

The book of Leviticus tells Jews to treat the aliens among them as they treat themselves. It also tells them to. Love your neighbor as yourselves. It is time for our Jewish brothers and sisters to get with God's program.

Harry the Horrible| 9.27.11 @ 9:36AM

Israel already provides "equal rights" for Arabs in Israel. Or haven't you noticed that there are Arab Muslim members of the Knesset?

Sean| 9.27.11 @ 9:40AM

Actually they don't have equal rights. They can not do everything a Jew can in Israel. They are not allowed to serve in the military.

Sean| 9.27.11 @ 9:53AM

I should say higher up in the military.

KyMouse| 9.27.11 @ 1:22PM

In 2008, Harvard's Kennedy School of Government worked with Haifa University to susrvey 1,721 Israeli Arabs. Their report, entitled "Coexistence in Israel," revealed that 77 percent of the Arab Israeli respondents said they would rather live in Israel than in any other country in the world. Any other country.

Occam's Tool| 9.27.11 @ 7:34PM

There are good security reasons for that. But their Civil Rights are vastly better than under Islamic rule, Sean.

Jack in Wi.| 9.27.11 @ 4:25PM

The Arab citizen of Israel are treated like we used to treat our black citizens under Jim Crow. The Arabs under Israeli controll in the West Bank or under Israeli blockade in Gaza are treated like cockroachs to be expelled or exterminated. The white South Africans and white American southerners finally gave in and excepted that all people deserve to be treated equally before the law. I hope that the Jews, who have along history of liberal thought and actions, come to the same sane conclusion.

Occam's Tool| 9.27.11 @ 7:41PM

Bull and shit, jack. It would help if you lived in the South and knew something about the actual treatment by personal knowledge, not jsut in books. We did far worse by our Blacks than the Jews do to Arabs, Far, far worse.

Name the Black legislators in the South after Reconstruction until the modern Civil Rights era.

Gaza is blockaded because they are firing rockets at Jews. Being at war means suffering blockade. Stop murdering, stop blockade.

Mike D.| 9.27.11 @ 9:40AM

Same old rubbish old Jackie. First off, for our new viewers lets establish what Jack's overall view on jews are so we can ascertain where he's coming from in regards to this article:

Jack in Wi.| 9.10.11 @ 10:04AM
"Whatever good individual Jews have done in the world pails in comparission to the bad of the last 200 years. Atheism, communism, Socialism, Nuclear Weapons, expansionist Zionism, and nuclear blackmail"

Now that we have established that old jack here is firmly in the Anti-Semitic Anti-isreali ZOG camp (theres more juicy quotes but this one will suffice for the time being)

The Second question here is why would old jack advocate "one, secular country" when those who are involved are of the realization that the best thats going to happen is two seperate states. There are only two kinds of people who believe that some kind of utopic combined state is a realistic alternative:

1. Somebody who is totally naive and historically retarded(Since world history for jack started in 1948 we could put jack here easily but lets proceed onward )
2. Ahhhh, the other camp. Those who want the complete removal and destruction of the state of Isreal by other means(meaning internally) Well lets examine jacks' view on Isreal

Jack in Wi.| 9.10.11 @ 1:58AM
"With all due respect: Israel with all it's nuclear weapons, crazed leadership, the Samson option, the Masada complex and its control of most of our government is a terrible black cloud on the world. I don't see any light coming through that darkness"

Now that we have established jack firmly in the second camp we can move on. In jack's world Isreal is the source of all evil in the world(as quoted above), but there is a thorny problem, that being Isreals nuclear arsenal and the IDF and that problem of being a state. So, if we could somehow force Isreal into a Combined State status, then we get by that sticky Nuclear and IDF problem(which guarentees Isreals existence, but of course the Isreali's would have to lay down their arms and accept a piece of paper as their guarentee to exist) by an internal attack on the problem instead of a military solution. When the ficticious Isreal palestine state is established, then Jews leave(as many did in Germany before Hitler assumed full control), of course we know some will stay and that will be dealt with by the "crystal night" technique, and then of course the inevitable full takeover by Muslims and bingo. No more Isreal, no more Jewish problem, no more darkness on the earth, no more control of our government. Fixed! Best part is that old Jackie here gets to look Diplomatic and humanitarian by advocating it. Toss in some cherry picked biblical quotes(that apply to one side only of course and sidestepping the Koran) and Jack here is the voice of reason and moderation. Jack is the man of the hour. Bravo!

Margie| 9.27.11 @ 1:55PM

Well done. You have perfectly describe the Paul-bot modus operandi.

Occam's Tool| 9.27.11 @ 7:41PM

Thanks, Mike.

Clint| 9.27.11 @ 8:18PM

The Israel Firster Bibibots are in the building.

Margie| 9.27.11 @ 9:28PM

I'm not a Bibibot, but I AM a Truthbot.
And proudly so.

Jack in Wi.| 9.28.11 @ 5:28PM

I don't think Israel can be fored into a combined state. I just hope that sane jews will see it as the only solution. Sane Jews do not comment on this site.

The blacks of the American South were in a far better system then present day Israel. They had a written constitution that guarenteed their rights. The laws and Constitution had to be enforced. That is what happened during the 1960's. The arab citizens of israel have no constitutional guarentee of their rights. They are subject to worse harassment then most Blacks suffered under the dark days of Jim Crow.

Mike D.| 9.29.11 @ 7:28AM

Can't let a day go by without posting some anti-Isreali bullshit can you? Even if its the same BS you posted 4 inches above this. You have an obsession Jackie, get it treated.

Sean| 9.27.11 @ 10:09AM

Ending Apartheid in South Africa didn't turn out to swell for the white population. If you use that example Israel would be out of their mind to do so. It is best for the US to stay out of this mess.

Jack in Wi.| 9.27.11 @ 4:28PM

I agree with you. Israel has never been the business of the USA. It is time to let these people solve their own problems. There are many sane Israeli's and other Jews who want a real and just solution. They don't comment on these pages.

Occam's Tool| 9.27.11 @ 7:33PM

Sure, Jack. back a nuclear power into a corner, mook.

Sane Israelis. No apostrophe, you illiterate cretin.

Clint| 9.27.11 @ 8:30PM

Israel Firster Bibibot, Tool Job Can't Seem To Let Handle It's Own Problems,Without Dragging The United States Into Their Foodfights.

TrueBlue| 9.28.11 @ 3:43PM

You do realize the only reason the Israelis didn't keep the territory after the 6 Day War is because they were trying to be nice? All it has gotten them since is hatred by their neighbors. The only reason the Israelis have ever stopped their counter attacks in the last 20 yrs is that we (we being the US) pressure them to stop. If we got out of the way, there would be peace in the Middle East alright, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't turn out the way the libs and Paulbots think it would.

Occam's Tool| 9.27.11 @ 7:34PM

That would result in mass murder of Jews, dumbass.

Clint| 9.27.11 @ 8:34PM

You Didn't Give A Rat's Ass About Using American Warriors,As Cannon Fodder For Your Bibibot Agenda, Nor Blowin' The Shit Out Of Non-Jews In The ME.

Box Of Tissues, Bibibot Crybaby,Tool Job?

TrueBlue| 9.28.11 @ 3:46PM

You might find it easier to convince people of your point of view if you would use proper grammar, didn't insult people for disagreeing with you, and worked on your sentence structure a bit.

Insults and shouting are an indication of someone thinking through their emotions and not with their head. Emotions have their place, but political discussion is not that place.

Occam's Tool| 9.27.11 @ 7:42PM

Palestinian, Jack. Learn to spell, moron.

Hard to love your neighbor when he beheads your kids, you bloodthirsty swine.

Clint| 9.27.11 @ 8:38PM

Hard to Love Neo-Chickenhawk Bibibots Like Tool Job Here,Who Attempt To Use American Warriors For Cannon Fodder To Fight Israel's Battles.

Ike| 9.27.11 @ 8:29AM

As used to be said, Tell it to the Marines. How many times must it be repeated that in the state of Israel all faiths and ethnic backgrounds have equal rights and are treated with dignity and respect? How many times must it be repeated that in the Arab states, minorities are treated like enemies and it is basically a permanent struggle for power, erupting into ghastly civil wars -- see Iraq after our invasion, or Afghanistan today, or the Christians of Egypt after the overthrow of Mubarak --when ever the lid blows off, the lid being the heavy hand of a police-state dictatorship. What kind of nonsense is this to once again ask the Jews to oblige their potential killers? They've done absolutely everything to enable the founding of a Palestinian state, up to and including ceding territory, ending new settlements, arming (yes!) the Palestinian police force, hospitalizing the Palestinians, training them in schools and universities, and on and on. What more do you want?

Bigbigeye| 9.27.11 @ 9:32AM

How many times must it be repeated that in the Arab states, minorities are treated like enemies and it is basically a permanent struggle for power, erupting into ghastly civil wars?

http://www.bigbigeye.com

Ebenezer| 9.27.11 @ 9:33AM

It's not what more do you want. It's what more do they want. In the days of U.S.-Soviet negotiations, our tough minded negotiators reminded the appeasers that the Soviets based their negotiating strategy on a simple formula: what's mine is mine and what's yours is up for grabs. Oddly enough, some of those today who have got us into a logical corner by cheering on a "democratic spring" that produces majorities for the likes of Hamas were, back then, realistic about what the Soviets were up to. That seems to be the implicit theme here.

Dave| 9.27.11 @ 10:09AM

Sheesh.

They were given a state when Isreal was - it wasn't enough.

Isreal agrees to give them nearly everything they want - it wasn't enough.

When are we going to learn that there is no peace with the Arabic nations? They are a people determined to have bloodshed at any cost.

John786| 9.27.11 @ 10:26AM

What is the point of this article. It presupposes that somehow nations can control the future. They can't. America faced with the Arab spring has taken the right decisions in Egypt, Tunisia, libya. But the wrong decision in Palestine, Bahrain, the magical Kingdom, Yemen. I agree with one thing, democracy in the ME will produce regimes that will represent there own interest. Bad news for some in the region. America is in dire financial difficulties, can I ask people to pressurise there elected representatives to cut all aid/assistance to all Muslim countries (: by all means pass it on to Isreal). This will be a great service to the Islamic world.

Wee Willie| 9.27.11 @ 11:12AM

As a child I read the tale of "The Emperor has no Clothes.” I did not believe that this tale was possible because I did not understand that it was a moral tale.

As an older adult I am simply astounded how true this tale is. Item: as I searched my memory I cannot remember any instance where the overthrow of legitimate monarch led to better government. Or more specifically were the governments of Afghanistan, Lybia, Tunis, Iran, Iraq, or Egypt more just to their people than the governments that followed the overthrow the monarch?

America's visceral distrust of the monarchy has led to much misery of the people who lost their monarchs as well as foreign-policy problems for the United States.

It would seem that with the United States encouragement that legitimate monarchs could be restored these countries. Remember, it is very difficult for a legitimate monarch to be a tyrant. A legitimate monarch with real power can easily work with an elected legislature and independent judiciary. The key point is the monarch should have the power to appoint judges, with the approval of the Legislature, and to appoint the Prime Minister.

A good monarch is not a good monarch unless he reflects the will and general welfare of his people.

VBMax| 9.27.11 @ 6:18PM

It pains me to say it but a truly benevolent monarchy is a better government than a democracy. Ouch!

Occam's Tool| 9.27.11 @ 7:37PM

Yes, but the number of Antoninius Piuses are limited. And when you choose a Commodus, very bad things can happen. Our government is designed so that Harvard trained idiots cannot destroy it completely.

TrueBlue| 9.28.11 @ 3:50PM

Well, they can, it just takes a bit longer.

Wee Willie| 9.28.11 @ 4:28PM

Empirically, people are more free under a Monarch than under a republic. Monarchs that have problems (George III of UK) can be controlled.

No monarch would have had the gall to impose prohibition. It is hard to imagine a president declared a Saint. Canonized Kings and Queens are relative common.

Use reason, not your inherited prejudices.

cicero| 9.27.11 @ 11:24AM

I think the point of the article is that our State Department doesn't know what it is doing, or if it does, it is operating in contravention of American interests. But, this should come as no suprise. They have been on that tack since perhaps Wilson, and definitely since Roosevelt.
I would suggest that we disband the State Department entirely, and reseerve only the diplomatic corps, under the direct supervision of the President. Further, stop using American funds in trying to bribe other peoples to like us. That is futility by definition. Fear or repect are at least honest emotions - like is not.
If other people's want to throw a revolution, so be it. If others want to sell us goods that we need, and we are willing to pay for, good. But to try to bribe others to act as we want them to is silly, and futile.

OLDRAY| 9.27.11 @ 12:42PM

There are a lot of anti-Israel writers that know nothinmg about Israel. There are Arabs in the Israeli military. Northern Beduin almost all serve in thr IDF, It's been some years but I spent some time with Israeli Beduin soldiers who lived in a lovely village at the top of Mt Tabor. They ,with their families had Israel subsidized housing ,school and Mosque . Take a drive up Mt Tabor. It's a beautiful view looking out over the Jezreel Valley, Moslem Druze almost all serve in the IDF. As a (long ago) journalist I went on armored car patrol with mixed crew of Jewish and Druze soldiers. Go to Israel's outstanding hospital (Hadassah ) in Jerusalem. You'll find there are Arab Doctors , Nurses and patients. Go to Israeli Universities and you'll find large nimbers of Arab students. Nowhere else in the Arab world will you find Christians (of many faiths), Moslems,Jews, Bahais, and others living in security with Social security and medical care not available in most Arab states. Go take a look yourself. But don't (especially if you are a woman) look for equality and safety expect to find equal rights in Egypt, Jordan ,Syria, Iraq, Iran or Saudi Arabia.

Occam's Tool| 9.27.11 @ 7:37PM

Thank you, Oldray.

Mike D.| 9.28.11 @ 7:53AM

Good stuff Oldray.

obadiah| 9.27.11 @ 2:34PM

It's Springtime for Bibi, who sees it as an opportunity for more settlements. Facts on the ground trump words at the UN every time. "It's Springtime for Bibi and Settlements. The Whole Land is Our Land for sure."

Timothy L. Pennell| 9.27.11 @ 4:42PM

They all should have been ELIMINATED, a long time ago. As their namesakes - the PHILISTINES, were.
Nobody would miss them.

John786| 9.27.11 @ 5:27PM

Tim,
I would miss them. They're my brothers.

Occam's Tool| 9.27.11 @ 7:35PM

Yes, we know. And your brothers screw their 1st cousins, with deleterious genetic defects abounding.

John786| 9.27.11 @ 7:47PM

Agree. First cousin thing should be avoided unless your a pharoe or a hillbilly.

Clint| 9.27.11 @ 8:41PM

Bibibot Tool Job Got No Excuse For His Defects.

POST American| 9.27.11 @ 11:05PM

---------------------BOTTOM LINE---------------------

"We are on purpose creating another
ULSTER in the Middle East."
-A voice from the 'British' Globalist
establishment, 1922

Think ULSTER, the Boer partitions,
the Balfour mandated Isreal, the later the
partitions of Berlin, and Germany,
and Cyprus, Vietnam, and Korea.

THINK 'Order Out of Chaos'
---and the CON-trolled 'DIE----ALL--eck--tick' .

---------------THINK 'bennie violence'----------------

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