Why Can't Condi Be More Convincing?
Across the Arab world, Condi's oh-so-radical suggestion that voting might not be the end of Islam was met with what can generously be called skepticism. There are a lot of reasons for that, from entrenched hierarchies of government and gender, but let's not lose the forest for the trees. The reason the Arab and Muslim world resists democratization is because they think it's a Jewish plot:
The United States of Sharon... Sharon was responding to a rumor circulating in the halls of the U.S. administration and some diplomatic circles. The rumor stipulates that Washington is moving away from Sharonism in its Middle Eastern Policy. Nevertheless, the George W. Bush administration dared not claim this so far, and may never do so...
The question is: why did Condoleezza Rice visit the region? Most likely, because Washington felt that there is a problem threatening the Gaza withdrawal plan. The problem is Israel, because it is finding it hard to abandon the unilateral aspect of that plan. It did not consider to cooperate with the Palestinians, because cooperation gives them rights and gains Israel would prefer to persist in denying in order to keep a foothold in the areas it is pulling out from. What is strange is that Rice announced that the Israelis and the Palestinians agreed to demolish the settlement homes after their evacuation as an achievement of her historic visit. Rice assumed that both sides wanted such an agreement, which means that they have practically begun to cooperate.
The Bush administration is betting that it can pull the Middle East out of the 12th century and into 21st. But the 21st century doesn't have the comfort of blaming everything on Jews (well, not outside of Sen. Conyers make-believe world in which Democrats are successful, but that's neither here nor there). This mentality of blaming everything on Jews is an underappreciated barrier to democratization - it narrows the mind and infantilizes the citizen, simultaneously telling him that he has no control over the world and that violently lashing out against Jews will give him that control. Not a recipe for informed voting.
[Cross-posed on IsraPundit]
The United States of Sharon... Sharon was responding to a rumor circulating in the halls of the U.S. administration and some diplomatic circles. The rumor stipulates that Washington is moving away from Sharonism in its Middle Eastern Policy. Nevertheless, the George W. Bush administration dared not claim this so far, and may never do so...
The question is: why did Condoleezza Rice visit the region? Most likely, because Washington felt that there is a problem threatening the Gaza withdrawal plan. The problem is Israel, because it is finding it hard to abandon the unilateral aspect of that plan. It did not consider to cooperate with the Palestinians, because cooperation gives them rights and gains Israel would prefer to persist in denying in order to keep a foothold in the areas it is pulling out from. What is strange is that Rice announced that the Israelis and the Palestinians agreed to demolish the settlement homes after their evacuation as an achievement of her historic visit. Rice assumed that both sides wanted such an agreement, which means that they have practically begun to cooperate.
The Bush administration is betting that it can pull the Middle East out of the 12th century and into 21st. But the 21st century doesn't have the comfort of blaming everything on Jews (well, not outside of Sen. Conyers make-believe world in which Democrats are successful, but that's neither here nor there). This mentality of blaming everything on Jews is an underappreciated barrier to democratization - it narrows the mind and infantilizes the citizen, simultaneously telling him that he has no control over the world and that violently lashing out against Jews will give him that control. Not a recipe for informed voting.
[Cross-posed on IsraPundit]
