Reply #53: You can't assume that that IS the will of the people

[Ken Burch]

And it's impossible to ETERNALLY keep a people from governing itself.

You seem to think that it's an unchallengeable assertion that the people of Egypt are obsessed with destroying Israel to the exclusion of any practical concerns about issues relating to their own lives. What do you BASE this conclusion on?

And how, when this movement has declared itself repeatedly in favor of multi-party democracy and free speech, can you continue to assert that "there's no evidence" that a democratization process is being made to happen from below?

And, if you were right about that, please explain how keeping Egypt under Mubarak or a Mubarak-type(like his son)would EVER lead to the country giving up the objectionable beliefs you're convinced they hold? When has keeping a country under a tyrant EVER lead to that country becoming MORE liberal? Can you point to any period in ANY country's history where that worked? That certainly wasn't the case in Ataturk's Turkey. The only reason THAT country ever developed a democratic tradition was that Ataturk was decent enough to drink himself to death. Had he lived on, dictatorship would have lived on with him until the day he DID die.

Finally, if you really do want the Arab/Muslim countries to make peace with Israel(an honorable goal, but one we both know CAN'T be achieved BEFORE or WITHOUT the establishment of a Palestinian state)how do you think you are assisting that goal by acting as if all Arabs are patholigically incapable of living democratically or living in peace? Do you really think the constant claims by the Israeli government that "we're BETTER" than the Arab/Muslim countries have any positive effect? How could INSULTING the countries Israel claims it wants to make peace with possibly lead them to consider peace with Israel to be a good thing? Did you ever even think about that? Nations don't make peace with other nations whose leaders perpetually disrespect them.