Quote:
Originally Posted by blankall
Quick question. How would condeming Israel and supporting dictatorships actually help the cause of spreading democracy in the middle east? Are you saying that if Canada didn't support Israel, they could then go and ask the dictators to please stop being dictators and become democracies, and they would do it?
I'm also curious how you come to the conclusion that Israel destabilizes the region? Israel is somehow responsible for the dictators and theocracies now? The only possible example of destabilization is Lebanon. If Israel didn't exist, Syria would simply have taken it over. Syria's government is led by the Ba'ath party, whose name translates into return of the great arab empire. They have stated several times their goal is to reform greater Syria. We all know what a stable force Syria is. As bad as things are in Lebanon, they'd be worse in Syrian hands.
And no, Israel would not share their intelligence and military technology with us if we stopped supporting them.
|
I think people get carried away a little bit with how awesome a democracy is and how horrible a dictatorship is. Remember, the Palestinians democratically elected Hamas, yet we can all agree that Fatah (essentially a dictatorship) is much better off for both the Palestinians and Israelis. Jordan for example is fairly liberal (for the region anyways), yet is a monarchy with very limited powers to elected officials. Yet Jordan is the most stable nation in the region, even more so than Israel, and on all accounts a decent place to live. Lebanon on the other hand is a democracy, with albeit some pretty shady parties allowed to run for election (read Hezbollah), but they do have fair and open elections where any party can be criticized just as they are here in the West. Yet Lebanon might be the most unstable in the region, although I would also say it's a fairly decent place to live. Outside of the Middle East, I hate to bring up the Nazis in a thread that involves Israel, but Hitler was elected democratically.
So in the end, supporting a democracy shouldn't be the end game. Supporting stability should be a more important priority.