[capitalis​mos] POLITICAL TRANSITION​S IN MIDDLE EAST

Greeks, Turks, and Britons have influenced the culture of Middle East for many centuries. Now there are many political transitions in the Middle East. Everybody recognizes this is a pivotal moment in the Middle East and North Africa. Hillary Clinton asserts the Arab Spring is an event comparable to the fall of the Ottoman Empire or the decolonization of the Middle East following the Second World War. And historians will long be debating these momentous developments.

From Ankara to Brussels, the condemnation of the only longstanding democracy in the Middle East is always swift and unequivocal. The United Nations, the European Union, and the Arab League engage in a frenzy of denunciation, even before all the facts are established. Israel continues to be the U.N.'s favorite whipping boy. In the past four years, three quarters of the resolutions passed by the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) have condemned Israel. Israel always faces hypocrisy and a biased rush to judgment.

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The future of the Middle East will be written by its own people, not by any foreign power. We should stand with those in the region who call for peaceful, democratic transitions, for tolerance and pluralism. Western policy approach should be both pragmatic and in keeping with Graecoroman principles, values, and interests.
Israel is a bastion of freedom and Graecoroman culture, an economic miracle, and a leader in science and technology. Israel is the only free country in a region dominated by Arab monarchies, theocracies and dictatorships. It is only the citizens of Israel, Arabs and Jews alike, who enjoy the right to express their views, to criticize their government, to form political parties, to publish private newspapers, to hold free elections.
Clinton points out this as a moment of great challenge and great opportunity – and the two are inexorably linked. Uprisings across the region have exposed a number of myths: The myth that governments can hold on to power without responding to their people's aspirations or respecting their rights; the myth that the only way to produce change in the region is through violence and conflict; and, most pernicious of all, the myth that Arabs do not share universal human aspirations for freedom, dignity, and opportunity.
When Islamists deny the most basic freedoms to their own people, it is obscene for them to start claiming that Israel is violating the Palestinians' rights. All Muslims who are genuinely concerned with human rights should, as their very first action, seek to oust their own despotic rulers and adopt the type of free society that characterizes Israel. http://venitism.blogspot.com/
The protests and upheaval we have witnessed in so many countries have the potential to bring about a region that is more democratic, more economically dynamic, and more responsive to the needs and aspirations of its citizens. The status quo in the Middle East is unsustainable, and genuine democratic changes in that region will make countries both more stable and, in the long run, likely to be more in sync with the interests of the West. But there is also the danger that democratic transitions can be hijacked by undemocratic forces, giving rise to new autocracies. The West needs to shape its policies in the region to encourage peaceful democratic transitions and to help prevent the rise of such new autocracies.
Land-for-peace is a repugnant formula for Israel's self-immolation. The right of a civilized nation to self-defense against its barbarous enemies is a moral absolute. It should not be surrendered in a vain attempt to appease the initiators of war. It is a moral perversion to demand that Israel give back the very land it captured in the process of defending itself against wars launched by the Arab aggressors.
Obama asserts that democratic transitions must be home grown. The challenge falls to the people and the leaders of the region to achieve the brighter future they desire – a future in which governments respond to the aspirations of their people and view it as their duty to protect human rights, fundamental freedoms and the dignity that all people desire and deserve. But the West has a keen interest in their success, and we can play a key supporting role.
We have done and will do this by acknowledging, supporting and empowering the democratic and reformist voices from the region. And we will continue to do this by speaking honestly about the need to respect human rights and shun violence. We continue to tell all governments, friendly or not, that the use of violence to suppress peaceful expression is wrong and destabilizing, both to the governments that resort to violence and to the region as a whole.
A criminal has no right to protest the justice of having his guns confiscated by the police, and particularly not a criminal who continues to underwrite acts of crime. And the worst of the land-for-peace policy is that it caused Israel to give the Palestinians their own domain, with the job of protecting against terrorism entrusted terrorists.
Much has been said about the alleged conflict between our democratic values and our desire for stability in the Middle East. This is a false dichotomy. The West has a profound interest in regional stability, and we believe that respect for universal human rights and the principle that governments are accountable to their people are in fact key components of long-term stability.
When Israel ended its occupation of Gaza, it did not impose a blockade. Indeed it left behind agricultural facilities in the hope that the newly liberated Gaza Strip would become a peaceful and productive area. Instead Hamas seized control over Gaza and engaged in acts of warfare against Israel. These acts of warfare featured 10,000 rockets directed at Israeli civilians. This was not only an act of warfare, it was a war crime.
Israel responded to the rockets by declaring a blockade, the purpose of which was to assure that no rockets, or other material that could be used for making war against Israeli civilians, was permitted into Gaza. Israel allowed humanitarian aid through its checkpoints. There was never a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, merely a shortage of certain goods that would end if the rocket attacks ended. http://venitism.blogspot.com/
Clinton points out that as popular movements for political change take on the immense challenges facing their respective countries, political outcomes will have a significant impact on stability in the region. If the region's movements for greater democracy, opportunity, dignity, and accountability fail to produce successful transitions to more inclusive and transparent democratic systems, the Middle East will be unable to overcome its mounting economic and social challenges. These challenges are well established, from stagnant economies saddled by corruption, inequality, and unemployment, to resource depletion, to the marginalization of women and minorities, and they add up to an unsustainable status quo.