Bernard Avishai on the Kojo Nnamdi show out of WAMU in Washington:
NNAMDI: Do you see any comparisons between these protests and the Arab Spring or what’s currently taking place in Europe? 800-433-8850. Bernard, I put the same question to you. Any parallels here?
AVISHAI: Well, I think the parallel, the big, broad parallel is you can always bring out people to the streets when you’re talking about very simple things. I — you know, I think the parallel is more to what’s happening in Spain right now, for example, where, you know, people or householders are coming to the streets, or what happened in Brazil years ago and, you know, people were coming out and banging on pots and pans.
I think the difference, in this case, to what went on in Cairo is probably important because in Cairo, people came out for a kind of radical democratic program to confront a tyranny. That’s not quite the case here. People are coming out to confront what they consider to be an old guard and tired ways of thinking, you know, business monopolies, people who believe in privatization, sort of Thatcherite politics.
And they want to change “the system.” But they’re not yet coming out for what, I think, is a radically democratic program, which I think has got to be on their agenda because the real question that they haven’t answered, this young leadership hasn’t answered yet is, is this coalition really big enough to include the 20 percent Arab population whom they would like to bring out into the streets?
But in order to keep them in the streets, they’re going to have to address the Palestinian issue. And I think the democratic tinge to this movement will only become apparent, if at all, if that coalition with Israeli-Arabs becomes a big deal for the leadership. Right now, it seems to be something they’re kind of soft-pedaling.
