Image via Wikipedia“It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.” — Winston Churchill
Related source » A mass expression of outrage against injusticeYes, of course, Winston Churchill was, and historian Bernard Lewis continues to be, smart. But how smart do you have to be to see what is plainly before you?
Historian Bernard Lewis diagnoses the fundamental cause of the region-wide explosion of protest, and dismisses Western notions of a quick fix.
[This related source is recommended in its entirety.]
“And so to the Israel question. Israel, like everybody else, was taken completely by surprise. How should Israel be responding to these protests?
Watch carefully, keep silent, make the necessary preparations. And reach out. Reach out. This is a real possibility nowadays. There are increasing numbers of people in the Arab world who look with, I would even say, with wonderment at what they see in Israel, at the functioning of a free and open society. I read an article quite recently by a Palestinian Arab whom I will not endanger by naming, in which he said that “as things stand in the world at the present time, the best hope that an Arab has for his future is as a second class citizen of a Jewish state.” A rather extraordinary statement coming from an Arab spokesman. But if you think about it, he’s not far wrong. The alternative, being in an Arab state, is very much worse. They certainly do better as second class citizens of the Jewish state. There’s a growing realization of that. People would speak much more openly about that if it were safe to do so, which it obviously isn’t. There are two things which I think are helpful towards a better understanding between the Arabs and Israel. One of them is the well-known one, of the perception of a greater danger, which I mentioned before. Sadat turned to Israel because he saw that Egypt was becoming a Russian colony. The same thing has happened again on a number of occasions. Now they see Israel as a barrier against the Iranian threat. The other one, which is less easy to define but in the long run is probably more important, is [regarding Israel] as a model of democratic government. A model of a free and open society with rights for women – an increasingly important point, especially in the perception of women. In both of these respects I think that there are some hopeful signs for the future.” [emphasis added]
— By DAVID HOROVITZ, 02/25/2011 (jpost.com)
The Arab "street" is hell-bent on attaining seventh-century squalor; the squalor they currently inhabit is apparently not squalid enough for them. But there in the midst of this sea of ignorance and squalor shines the, arguably, foremost forward-looking state of modernity, the State of Israel. No other state embraces the potential bounty of 21st-century innovation and individual liberty as does Israel.
What's not to like? Apparently, human stupidity and envy will always find something to whine about. Against monumental odds and in a relatively brief period of 63 years, this "little nation that could" turned a small patch of desert-sans-oil into an oasis from the squalor surrounding it, all the while fighting half a dozen major wars and defending against relentless terrorist attacks by the Arab Jew-haters.
And what about the worldly leftist intelligentsia? These ignoramuses see through their diseased eyes what their bigotry impels them to see, namely the deliberate inversion of reality. Black is white; up is down; light is darkness; and Jews are, were, and will always be "the problem in need of a final solution".
Post 1,581 It's about being smart, stupid!
No comments:
Post a Comment