Judging by Company: Democracy and the Middle East

By: Daniel Cohen

Israel is in the midst of a trifecta of political attacks this summer—the Gaza flotilla, the “flytilla” from across Europe, and the looming unilateral Palestinian declaration of statehood in the United Nations.  At this point in the summer—with two of the threats appearing to have been averted—we can observe one thing that all three issues have in common.

They all show the sharp contrast between moral democracies, governed by a respect for freedom and human rights, and their counterpart: dictatorships that terrorize their own people in order to preserve their own power.

Gaza Flotillas and Flytillas

Following last year’s spectacular public-relations stunt involving the Mavi Marmara, Israel went to great lengths to ensure there would be no sequel to the Gaza flotilla series.  Diplomatic overtures succeeded in stopping three flotillas before they embarked, in large part due to a blossoming alliance with democratic Greece.  In a clear recognition of Israel’s legal military blockade, Greece imposed a ban on all Gaza-bound ships, even arresting the captain of the US flotilla ship.

Israeli President Shimon Peres said that Greece’s actions, combined with President Karolos Papoulias’ recent visit to Israel and Yad Vashem, signal a new chapter in the two countries’ relations.

But Greece is only one example of a democracy helping Israel deal with publicity-driven border intrusions.  When hundreds of activists attempted to fly in to Ben-Gurion airport last week with the intention of staging protests in the West Bank, democracies France, Germany, and Switzerland all stopped the activists from boarding planes.

Unilateral Palestinian Declaration of Statehood

Forgoing direct peace negotiations with Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is poised to appeal to its most reliable ally – the United Nations – if it follows through with plans to announce statehood this fall. The UN is not exactly a moral authority, most recently coming under fire for United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian Human Rights Richard Falk’s anti-Semitic cartoon and upcoming Durban III Anti-Racism Conference, which has committed almost its entire agenda to criticizing – and libeling - Israel.

The reason for this glaring bias at the UN, however, is the member governments that make up the UN. Most of them are dictatorships.  And that is whom the Palestinians are courting for diplomatic support.  If one is to be judged by the company one keeps, then the Palestinians have officially gained the support of the Arab League, which is comprised of repressive dictators responsible for the Arab Spring.  Some of these dictators are guilty of massacring thousands of their own people in order to maintain power, such as President Assad of Syria and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya.

Recently, Assad made the statement that Syria “recognizes a Palestinian state”, and the Palestinians have called Syria’s recognition a “major step” on the road to UN recognition.  Not to be out-done, Gaddafi has called on Palestinians to revolt against Israel by massing at her borders, and has claimed, “All Arab states which have relations with Israel are cowardly regimes.”

Nevertheless, Israel is hopeful that it can win at the UN in September.  Though it is impossible to win a majority at the UN General Assembly, it can win the support of the free world.  This is why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has set the ambitious goal of gaining the support of 60 democracies – a so-called “moral minority” – to oppose the PA’s resolution in the UN.

An increasingly sympathetic segment of this target coalition is the Balkan democracies of Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Greece.

Netanyahu has said of these states, which have had their own struggles against the Soviet Union, that “they have lived under tyranny, so they are much more skeptical, they are much more respectful of a democracy arrayed against totalitarian forces…they get it.”

Netanyahu’s words were vindicated when Romania announced last week that it would not support a unilateral Palestinian bid for statehood.

South Sudan, the fledgling democracy of Africa, is another focus of Israel’s diplomatic efforts. Israel was one of the first countries to recognize the world’s newest state on Sunday, even offering economic assistance.  After it is admitted into the UN General Assembly this week, South Sudan perhaps can become another of Israel’s 60 democratic votes in September.

President Obama has already vowed that the United States would use its Security Council veto to stop the Palestinian resolution from passing.  “This notion that you can solve this problem in the United Nations is simply unrealistic … It avoids the real problems that have to be resolved between the two parties,” he said in a May interview with BBC.

European leaders have also expressed similar views, with France, the UK, Italy, and Germany seeming to join the pro-Israel block in vetoing a unilateral Palestinian declaration of statehood.

Democracies across the world are using their moral clarity to stand up for Israel, despite the political risks involved.   Perhaps the best example of this is Canada’s Steven Harper, who recently said Canada would stand behind Israel “whatever the cost…Not just because it is the right thing to do, but because history shows us, and the ideology of the anti-Israel mob tell us all too well, that those who threaten the existence of the Jewish people are in the longer term a threat to all of us.”

The glue holding Israel’s diplomatic alliance together, in countries ranging from Europe to North America to Africa, is the fact that they are all democracies.  While not all democracies can always be supportive of Israel, it is telling that Israel is focusing its diplomatic efforts on democracies.  The Palestinians, in contrast, can count on the support of repressive dictatorial regimes.  This inevitable comparison certainly makes one re-think what the Arab-Israeli conflict is really all about.

Additional Reading:

Deaths in Syria Tied to Rift Between Sects, Nada Bakri, New York Times

Palestine Cannot Get Freedom by UN: Obama Warns, Katrina Jones, The News Tribe

PM: Israel Wants Free Democracy in Middle East, Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post

Congress Warns Palestinian Authority About Reconciliation with Hamas, Tom Ramstack, All Headline News

Iran's Killing Spree Stifles Arab Spring, YNetNews

Social Networks as a Grass-Roots Approach to Mideast Peace, Jennifer Mizrahi, The Baltimore Sun