Scorecard: Israel 1, Arab states 0. That about sums it up. Israel held elections at the end of January 2003 and three Arab-led parties won 9 seats in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Democracy, I was told when I was a young man, meant majority rule with respect for minority rights. Israel more or less qualifies. Let’s take a look at a few other countries in the region.
Iraq, while still under the rule of Saddam Hussein, held elections in October 2002. Saddam, running unopposed, was elected by 100 percent of the electorate. Even patients in the hospitals — including those in deep comas — voted for him. Same thing for Syria’s late dictator Hafez Assad, who, running unopposed a few years ago, garnered 99 percent of the vote.
They sure do love those Arab despots, don’t they? Even despots in neighboring states. Take the Lebanese, for example. Poor things, they ‘invited’ Assad in to ‘help’ Lebanon during the civil war in 1976, and he and his army never left. Sort of like an obnoxious guest who overstays his visit, not sensing when its time to leave. At least the Christians in Lebanon feel that way.
But that’s Syria, well-known champion of democracy, respected member of the UN Security Council, and rapacious occupier of Lebanon in violation of UN Resolution 520. Syria, run by the Alawis, a heretical offshoot of Shiite Islam, of which current president Bashar and the rest of the Assad clan are members. Although they make up only 10-12 percent of the population (about equal to Syria’s Christians and far fewer than the roughly 75% Sunni Muslim majority), they rule with an iron fist.
The Sunnis may comprise the majority in Syria, but that certainly didn’t give pause to Hafez Assad when he destroyed the town of Hama in 1982, killing 20,000 people in an effort to root out a few hundred members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Although about 90 percent of Syria’s population is ethnically Arab, with the remainder Kurd, Armenian, and others, minority rights are doing just fine. Call it Alawi affirmative action, but democracy is democracy.
Iraq wasn’t much different before Saddam’s ouster. The country was run by the Tikritis — sons of the town of Tikrit, as almost everybody who’s been following events in Iraq already knows. Saddam Hussein, his advisers, the top Baath party leaders, and most military and security leaders all came from Tikrit, a town of about 200,000 out of a country of 23 million.
Talk about a company town — Iraq was a town-run country! Saddam and his cronies are Sunni Muslims, who are only about 35% of the population, in contrast to the 62% Shiite majority of Iraq. Minority rights win again.
What about Jordan, everyone’s favorite ‘modern’ Middle East kingdom? Parliament was suspended and political parties were banned for more than three decades. Political parties were first re-legalized in 1992. After years of ‘creeping democratization’ under the now deceased King Hussein — beloved friend of Yitzhak Rabin and builder of latrines from Jewish gravestones — his son, the enlightened, western-educated King Abdullah II, suspended parliament in June 2001. Elections have been postponed ever since. More than 100 emergency regulations (i.e. anti-democratic laws) have been enacted, including the suspension of press freedoms. Not to worry, though; everything’s been done according to the country’s constitution. Right?
It should be emphasized here that Jordan’s ruling Hashemite Dynasty has its roots in the Hejaz, not the artificially constructed state of Jordan. The Saud family booted them out in the early part of the 20th century, so they moved to the Palestine Mandate area and under British perfidy established a new kingdom called Transjordan.
