Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Democracy Activism - Mid East style
A paper that regularly gives Harold Meyerson, Eugene Robinson and Jimmy Carter Op-Ed space has already shown that its bar to publication wouldn’t even qualify as a speed bump and the latest to leap this hurdle is Saad Eddin Ibrahim, described as “… an Egyptian democracy activist and a sociology professor at the American University in Cairo.” The 'New Middle East' Bush Is Resisting
It wasn’t too long ago that Mr. Ibrahim was extolling the US to stay the course for democracy in the Mid-East:
"I hope the United States will have the sustainability, the consistency to see it through, along with indigenous forces that will build their own democracy," he said.” Saad Eddin Ibrahim Urges Democracy for Muslim World
I would have thought that a learned man such as Mr. Ibrahim would have known that when we say we support democratization efforts, such efforts have to go beyond the mere casting and counting of ballots. Freedoms have to accompany these efforts. But we now know that Mr. Ibrahim was merely calling for unfettered support, even if it meant supporting democratic actions that were inimical to US interests.
Mr. Ibrahim’s writes of a new Middle East and begins with his conclusion that this new Mid-East “… will be neither secular nor friendly to the United States.” He notes some recent activities in the democratization of his region:
“Egypt held its first multi-candidate presidential election in 50 years. So did Palestine and Iraq, despite harsh conditions of occupation.”
Yeah - a plucky people, those Iraqis – somehow overcoming the occupation to hold an election.
“Hamas mobilized candidates and popular campaigns to win a plurality in Palestinian legislative elections and form a new government. Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt achieved similar electoral successes.”
He then laments:
“Instead of welcoming these particular elected officials into the newly emerging democratic fold, Washington began a cold war on Muslim democrats.”
Is he freakin’ kidding me? Hamas? Hezbollah? These are people we can talk to? His characterization of some of the players in the region leaves me wondering just where he is getting his news. For example, there’s this howler:
“Born in the thick of an earlier Israeli invasion, in 1982, Hezbollah is at once a resistance movement against foreign occupation, a social service provider for the needy of the rural south and the slum-dwellers of Beirut, and a model actor in Lebanese and Middle Eastern politics.”
Where to start? To call them “a resistance movement against foreign occupation”, one must completely ignore their alliance with foreign occupier Syria for over twenty years. To paint them as “a social service provider for the needy of the rural south”, one must rank the setting up and firing of armament amongst civilians right up there with food and shelter. And to call them “a model actor”, one must consider the kidnapping of a state’s soldiers as just an accepted part of this wacky process we call politics.
The laughs don’t stop there. He takes note of a recent Egyptian poll that found Hezbollah leader Nasrallah as number one in perceived importance.
“The pattern here is clear, and it is Islamic. And among the few secular public figures who made it into the top 10 are Palestinian Marwan Barghouti (31 percent) and Egypt's Ayman Nour (29 percent), both of whom are prisoners of conscience in Israeli and Egyptian jails, respectively.”
There can be no Kool-Aid left after Mr. Ibrahim raided the refrigerator. Calling Marwan Barghouti a “prisoner of conscience” is itself an expression of one’s political sensibilities and in this case those would be decidedly anti-Israel. A brief reminder from an otherwise sympathetic write-up by the BBC about the man who is “[t]he leader of Arafat's Fatah movement in the West Bank [and] has been closely identified with one of its militant offshoots, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade” He is now serving 5 life sentences in Israel because :
“Ultimately he was convicted for murder over the deaths of four Israelis and a Greek monk, as there was insufficient evidence connecting him to the other 21. BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Profile: Marwan Barghouti
But wait, there’s more:
“More mainstream Islamists with broad support, developed civic dispositions and services to provide are the most likely actors in building a new Middle East. In fact, they are already doing so through … Hamas in Palestine and, yes, Hezbollah in Lebanon.”
And that pretty much sums up our problems over there: Hamas and Hezbollah are considered mainstream. And “democracy activists” such as Mr. Ibrahim can’t discern why President Bush - the strongest voice the US could offer in support of Mid-East democracy efforts - is wary of them.
It wasn’t too long ago that Mr. Ibrahim was extolling the US to stay the course for democracy in the Mid-East:
"I hope the United States will have the sustainability, the consistency to see it through, along with indigenous forces that will build their own democracy," he said.” Saad Eddin Ibrahim Urges Democracy for Muslim World
I would have thought that a learned man such as Mr. Ibrahim would have known that when we say we support democratization efforts, such efforts have to go beyond the mere casting and counting of ballots. Freedoms have to accompany these efforts. But we now know that Mr. Ibrahim was merely calling for unfettered support, even if it meant supporting democratic actions that were inimical to US interests.
Mr. Ibrahim’s writes of a new Middle East and begins with his conclusion that this new Mid-East “… will be neither secular nor friendly to the United States.” He notes some recent activities in the democratization of his region:
“Egypt held its first multi-candidate presidential election in 50 years. So did Palestine and Iraq, despite harsh conditions of occupation.”
Yeah - a plucky people, those Iraqis – somehow overcoming the occupation to hold an election.
“Hamas mobilized candidates and popular campaigns to win a plurality in Palestinian legislative elections and form a new government. Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt achieved similar electoral successes.”
He then laments:
“Instead of welcoming these particular elected officials into the newly emerging democratic fold, Washington began a cold war on Muslim democrats.”
Is he freakin’ kidding me? Hamas? Hezbollah? These are people we can talk to? His characterization of some of the players in the region leaves me wondering just where he is getting his news. For example, there’s this howler:
“Born in the thick of an earlier Israeli invasion, in 1982, Hezbollah is at once a resistance movement against foreign occupation, a social service provider for the needy of the rural south and the slum-dwellers of Beirut, and a model actor in Lebanese and Middle Eastern politics.”
Where to start? To call them “a resistance movement against foreign occupation”, one must completely ignore their alliance with foreign occupier Syria for over twenty years. To paint them as “a social service provider for the needy of the rural south”, one must rank the setting up and firing of armament amongst civilians right up there with food and shelter. And to call them “a model actor”, one must consider the kidnapping of a state’s soldiers as just an accepted part of this wacky process we call politics.
The laughs don’t stop there. He takes note of a recent Egyptian poll that found Hezbollah leader Nasrallah as number one in perceived importance.
“The pattern here is clear, and it is Islamic. And among the few secular public figures who made it into the top 10 are Palestinian Marwan Barghouti (31 percent) and Egypt's Ayman Nour (29 percent), both of whom are prisoners of conscience in Israeli and Egyptian jails, respectively.”
There can be no Kool-Aid left after Mr. Ibrahim raided the refrigerator. Calling Marwan Barghouti a “prisoner of conscience” is itself an expression of one’s political sensibilities and in this case those would be decidedly anti-Israel. A brief reminder from an otherwise sympathetic write-up by the BBC about the man who is “[t]he leader of Arafat's Fatah movement in the West Bank [and] has been closely identified with one of its militant offshoots, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade” He is now serving 5 life sentences in Israel because :
“Ultimately he was convicted for murder over the deaths of four Israelis and a Greek monk, as there was insufficient evidence connecting him to the other 21. BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Profile: Marwan Barghouti
But wait, there’s more:
“More mainstream Islamists with broad support, developed civic dispositions and services to provide are the most likely actors in building a new Middle East. In fact, they are already doing so through … Hamas in Palestine and, yes, Hezbollah in Lebanon.”
And that pretty much sums up our problems over there: Hamas and Hezbollah are considered mainstream. And “democracy activists” such as Mr. Ibrahim can’t discern why President Bush - the strongest voice the US could offer in support of Mid-East democracy efforts - is wary of them.
