This is shocking but not surprising.
1. Karl Vick at Time Magazine reports:
[Israeli minister:] “I’m not sure the time is right for the Arab region to go through the democratic process.”
The minister, who spoke on condition of not being identified by name or portfolio, cites the Gaza Strip as a signal warning of the risk that comes with asking the people what they want. … Arab societies demand “a longer term democratization process,” one accompanied by education reforms that would encourage the election of moderates. “You can’t make it with elections, especially in the current situation where radical elements, especially Islamist groups, may exploit the situation,” he says. “It might take a generation or so.
2. Barry Rubin, a multifarious neoconservative, writes
Remember the Iranian revolution when all sorts of people poured out into the streets to demand freedom? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is now president.
Remember the Beirut spring when people poured out into the streets to demand freedom? Hizballah is now running Lebanon.
Remember the Palestinians having free elections? Hamas is now running the Gaza Strip.
Remember democracy in Algeria? Tens of thousands of people were killed in the ensuing civil war. It doesn’t have to be that way but precedents are pretty daunting.
3. Eli Clifton at Lobelog does a great rundown of neocon talking points on Egypt:
The Israel Project (TIP) and the Emergency Committee for Israel’s (ECI) Noah Pollak seem to be running with the strategy of highlighting the contrast between Tunisia, Lebanon, and Egypt’s instability with Israel’s stable, democratic government. An Israel Project press release (H/T Justin Elliott) observed:
“All this illustrates, perhaps more dramatically than ever before, how different Israel is from all its neighbors. As a lively, boisterous democracy, the events unfolding on Arab streets across the region would be unthinkable in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.”
TIP concludes:
“There are no easy answers to Washington’s dilemma. But the overall lesson is clear. The United States needs more democratic friends in the region. Friends it can rely on. Friends like Israel.”
Noah Pollak tweeted: “I hope the “realists” who think the U.S. should end its alliance w/ Israel are learning who is genuinely stable & strong in the ME.”
