Two Articles that Caught My Eye

One reason the US tends to support the Israeli democracy over the various Arab thugocracies which surround it can be explained by these two contrasting articles. The first is here, where Prime Minister Netanyahu faced some fierce opposition to his handling of a forest fire that raged through parts of Israel. Apparently, this was a bit of a Katrina moment for the Israeli government, which was seen as trying to avoid responsibility for their handling of the fire.

The other article which came off the virtual wire is this one, wherein we read about the latest two conspiracy theories emanating out of various parts of the Arab world. Turns out those pesky Joooz are at it again, training the fauna of the Middle East to be Zionist fellow travelers. The most recent is a falcon, apparently sent from Tel Aviv University on either a routine migratory operation or (if you want the real truth that those wily hook-nosed beasts* are unwilling to give) a nefarious plot of espionage. Before that, of course, was the Zionist shark attacking tourists in Egypt.

The contrast of the two articles is jarring. On the one hand, we see Israeli citizens angry at, well, Israeli politicians. As a general rule, this is a healthy formula. You probably should be angry at your politicians, especially when they burn your home or burn your money. They are accountable in ways that Arab politicians simply do not have to be. It seems clear that the relatives of the 42 people who died in the fires are not planning to vote Likud in the next elections; but it is also clear that they have a choice. They are not inventing stories about how Fatah snuck in and set the fires; they are responding according to democratic custom, wherein those responsible for public services must explain their failures.

It is not important whether Bibi's handling of the fires was proper or poor to make this point, and your correspondent is in any case not well-read enough in Israeli domestic politics to evaluate the government's response to the situation. (I also haven't seen any reports from forest fire grievance groups that asked us to empathize with the angry fire, who was brought up in government housing by a single old flame working two jobs when she was knocked up by a bolt of lighting. But oh, the sparks that flew for a time!) Rightly or wrongly though, Netanyahu and his ministers are the accountable team. The shekel stops there.

On the other hand, a shark attack or a wayward bird on a scientific study are considered obvious links to the machinations of a foreign enemy. (Though seriously, if the falcon was a spy, would it really have "Tel Aviv University" on a tag on its leg? The Mossad can train a bird to fly into Saudi Arabia on a recon mission, but they aren't smart enough to keep the identifying marks off it?) When people have no responsible outlet (such as the democratic process) for their grievances, they latch on to scapegoats and conspiracies. If democracy is going to come to the Arab World, we're still in trouble if these are the people doing the voting. The democratizing process will be ugly, as it often has been.

* The Joooz, I mean, not the falcon-controlled press....