"How is it possible that no Muslim Arab country is a democracy?" I asked a senior and well-respected Arab journalist on a TV current affairs program ten years ago. His answer was that the US prevented it, Israel sabotaged it, and Europe doesn’t support it. In short, everyone was responsible for the situation, except the Arabs themselves.
I replied that nothing was more humiliating to the Arabs than that answer, because it presented them as helpless sheep on whom others could do as they please.
Has anything changed in the past decade? The dark and corrupt dictatorships, monarchies, and emirates still rule their people with a strong arm. What about Tunisia, you will ask?
The truth is that no one knows. The demonstrating masses succeeded in driving from power the president and his family. But now all is chaos, and who is in charge is unclear, let alone who will rule. As for democracy - it appears farther away than ever; no nearer than before the revolution.
In short, there is a lot of talk about the Tunisia effect, but the speakers don’t know if there was a revolution at all, or merely a change in leadership. There is a substantive difference between the two concepts: in a change of leadership the ruler is overthrown; in a revolution the regime is overthrown.
Let us take Iran as an example. There, the masses overthrew the Shah. Did the monarchy fall - yes, it did, but in practice the regime did not really collapse. Iran's people continue to live under a dictatorship, previously under the Shah, now under the ayatollahs. In other words, there was no transition from tyranny to freedom, from dictatorship to democracy.
And that is what happened in Egypt as well. King Farouk was ousted in 1952, and was replaced by Gamal Nasser. He and his successors were as dictatorial as the ousted king.
Now the Egyptian masses (All? The majority? A minority?) want to oust President Hosni Mubarak. They want democracy, freedom of expression, civil rights. If they succeed in winning them, we can talk about a revolution. But the chances of it happening are slim, given the mentality and character of the crowd, and because of the weight of the past. More likely, matters will end with the overthrow of Mubarak, a change in leader, but not a revolution.
A demonstration against the revelations by "Al Jazeera" was held in the Israeli-Arab town of Baka el-Gharbiyeh yesterday. "We are against being transferred to the territories. We were born here and we will die here," said the leader of the popular committee.
This statement is a deception, however, as the proposal for a land swap between Israel and Palestinian Authority means that the town's residents will continue to live and die where they were born - but they will do so under Palestinian sovereignty, not Israeli. What is so bad about that?
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 30, 2011
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011