There is no dispute that the best system of governance mankind had invented is democracy. But democracy does not lead automatically to a benevolent civilized state that coexists in peace and harmony with its neighbors – even if the neighbors are also democratic states.
The claim that more democracies will lead to more peaceful and humane world is a lie, mostly used to justify horrendous policies with typical mundane and materialistic goals under the guise of spreading democracy.
Most of Europe was democratic when it colonized, enslaved and tortured its non-European subjects in Africa and Asia. France, Great Britain and Israel were democracies when they occupied Sinai and the Suez Canal in the 1956 war until the US forced them out. The US itself and the UK were democracies when they toppled Mossadaq's democratically elected government in Iran in 1953 out of desire to keep control over oil-rich Iran.
The US was a democracy when lynching of blacks was neither uncommon nor prosecuted. And when systematic discrimination against blacks was enshrined in everyday life by no less than the US supreme court itself in 1896 And it took the Supreme Court 'only' 50 more years to correct that mistake in 1954.
South Africa was a democracy for its criminal and racist white minority that claimed a divine right to control and enslave the natives of the land.
In modern days, Israel is probably the epitome of a democracy that unabashedly and systematically exercise policies a ‘civilized democracy’ should be ashamed of.
At present, Israel still occupies parts of three neighboring states, controls the lives of millions of Palestinians, and denies that the land it occupies in Syria and Palestine is actually occupied at all. It is a democracy that feels free to use other countries air space (Lebanon and Palestine) for routine air force activities, for threats or for exercise.
It is a democracy that feels unbound by any international rules when it wants to destroy a building here, or a suspected reactor there, or to kidnap and assassinate whomever it deems the threat
de jour. No showing of evidence required, we just take Israel's word for it.
And if the rest of the world sees it otherwise, they are all anti-Semitic Israel-bashers. It also has
democratic political structure, and security agencies that scream existential threats all the time and kowtows Israeli voters into living in a paranoid mind set that makes all the atrocities seem necessary for the state's survival.
The latest round of
Israeli soldiers statements published tell a lot about what they were ordered to do while on a mission to destroy Gaza in January, and how their commanders and
their rabbis set the scene for guilt-free destruction of property and life in the poor enclave.
That speaks a lot to how evil a democracy can be and yet exploits the democracy claim to garner support for its immoral deeds.
The fight of Israel’s true moral minority against the a ‘democratic’ political system that brought to power fascists like Avigdor Lieberman and
extortionists like Netanyahu is a difficult but admirable fight. The success of the such moral minority is unfortunately in doubt.
But setting the IDF or Israeli politicians morality aside (very few would trust them anyway) it is the Israeli justice system that gives the illustrative example today.
Few months ago, a
pious Israeli citizen by the name of Ze'ev Braude [see photo above], an Osama bin Laden look-alike in appearance and in morality, felt that his religious annd zionist values obliged him to claim back a house from a Palestinian family – a house that Braude
knows belong to
his own people, on the land
'granted' to his people by God. And like any decent settler in under the Israeli democracy, he does not go any where without his rifle or machine gun.
An unenlightened Palestinian family could not possibly understand the historic and religious depth of the settler's commitment to fulfill the commands of his God by getting the impure ones out of the house and out of the land of Israel -- and a scuffle arose.
The good settler opened fire at close range at the enemies of God injuring 2 Palestinians, one of them was shot in the chest. After a very brief arrest, the representative of God on earth was
freed from jail (!!!) to house arrest pending trial.
Just for your info, that settler assault was part of a larger scale
rampage by settlers in Hebron against Palestinians, during which several other Palestinians where shot by settlers bullets. No news though about any arrest there either!!
Now the ordeal is over for the good patriotic citizen of Israel – really. Charges have been dropped and he is free and with clear conscience.
Viva la Democracie.And this is how
that democracy works for
its own people.
Haaretz, July 14 2009
The State Prosecution said Tuesday that it was dropping charges against a resident of Kiryat Arba who was caught on film shooting at two Palestinians in the West Bank last December.
The prosecution said it made the decision not to try Ze'ev Braude because such a move could expose classified information that might harm the security of the state.
Braude, 51, was filmed by the human rights group B'Tselem opening fire on the Palestinians at close range during the evacuation of a disputed house in Hebron. He was initially charged with intending to cause grievous bodily harm.
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Following the indictment, Defense Minister Ehud Barak signed off on a document guaranteeing immunity concerning sources of information for the Shin Bet, its modus operandi and the units and personnel operating within the framework of the organization.
Braude's attorney Ariel Atari requested that the court instruct the State Prosecution to reveal the secret evidence in order to help Braude's defense.
The prosecution argued that revealing the information would harm state security and added that if obligated to reveal the information, it would drop the charges against Braude.
[... end of Haaretz report]
If your jaws did not drop by now, re-read the last paragraph.
That is why Israeli democracy is such great a wonderful thing [for Israelis only, of course].
A criminal is armed and lives on stolen land. He shoots 2 people of the real land owners and the crime is recorded on film. He cannot be convicted (despite the
filming of the shooting and the material evidence of 2 injured people, and bullets in their bodies from his gun) without jeopardizing the state security. So, like any decent democracy, they let the fanatic criminal go free.
After all, it is not as if he shoot real human beings -- just 2 Palestinians.
The
light sentences, if any, that Israelis (settlers and IDF personnel) receive after criminal assaults on Palestinians are not new. The justice system in that oasis of democracy is a multi-tier system: some get justice, others do not even count.
Israel will eventually go where apartheid South Africa and segregated America went. And it would not be the imaginary Iranian nukes or toy Hamas rockets that would do it.
What is founded on falsehoods and injustice shall never last.
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