Jackie Danicki

A commenter on this piece makes the point that Only Palestine, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia are ethnically cleansed (of Jews). Nearly 25% of Israel’s population is NOT Jewish. Israel is more multi-cultural than any European nation. The UK can barely tolerate 5-6% of its population being non-white.

[A] fear society [is] one in which you can’t participate freely and without fear in the public debate. Having elections is one part of being a free society, but the civil institutions that protect free and fair discourse are even more important. And the Middle East is dominated by fear societies – back to back, cheek-by-jowl dictatorships.

To survive in power, the leaders of fear societies need an external enemy. A threat that justifies their policies of control, their emergency laws, their police infrastructure. Stalin needed the capitalists and the Trotskyites. North Korea demanded “ironclad unity under leader-party-nation” to keep the country safe from external predators. Hitler chose the Jews. And so did the leaders of Syria and Egypt, Iran and Libya.

…Look at Gaza. We are told that the fighting between Fatah and Hamas is inevitable given their desperation. It’s all the result of years of Israeli oppression. But why, then, is a very similar fight going on in Egypt between the Arab nationalist government and the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood? And why are Hezbollah and the Syrians killing Lebanese ministers? This fighting isn’t about Israel. It’s a struggle to the death between two authoritarian forces.

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