Is It Democratic That the PA Rule?

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, who famously claimed at the Madrid Conference that 'Jesus was a Palestinian' among other incorrect historical facts, takes on Dani Dayan's NYTimes op-ed.

She beings asserting there is

the belief that everyone has the right to live in their own free country.

Of course, she does not mention and certainly does not apologize for decades of activities by Arabs to deny Jews to do just that, live in our own free country.

For her,

...the settlers in their fortress tower blocks and militarily-defensible hilltops would make it impossible in practice [to achieve a two-state solution]. At that point, Israel would become -- not by negotiations, nor by international agreement, but by force -- a single state governing a population in which a large Palestinian population could be held in subjugation only by denying them any democratic freedom...The consequence of this must be that Israel ceases to be a democracy, since the permanent settlement of Palestinian land can happen only by one people subjugating another by force.


And she goes on, and on, on this theme:

The settlers' alternative can be supported only by abandoning the belief in political freedom. It must be stressed that one cannot believe in freedom without accepting that it applies to all. Freedom that applies only to oneself fits with something else: oppression and occupation [as well as the] undemocratic, anti-freedom nature of the Israeli occupation of which -- it has to be said -- Americans know too little.

Is she correct, though, writing

...that Israel must permanently hold Palestinians under occupation, showing contempt for other people's freedom, history, and culture. Where Mr. Dayan is not honest is in failing to admit that brick by brick the settlements are burying our freedom. He never explains how the settler strategy can be reconciled with democracy because it cannot. Surely, the United States must see that this is not a strategy it can support while proclaiming its belief in freedom. Freedom must be for all, not just for the militarily strong.

There are many Arabs in Israel, citizens, who vote and get elected, serve as judges, diplomats and industrialists.  Is it not possible that democracy reign?

Even Tom Friedman adds his voice:

No wonder settlers now boast on op-ed pages that the game is over, they’ve won, the West Bank will remain with Israel forever — and they don’t care what absorbing all of its Palestinians will mean for Israel’s future as a Jewish democracy.

Oh, we care.  But, cannot we ask whether a body politic such as the Palestinian Authority be democratic?  And if not, maybe some sort of link with Israel is best for all?

If democracy is the benchmark, the Arabs residing in the territory administered by the PA deserve better.

They are oppressed and certainly Israel shouldn't which would evolve if there be an independent state of 'Palestine'.

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