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Originally Posted by Hermit
Where we differ is what outcome we prefer.
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Hamas rules now that it has neutralised Fatah. I predict that ISIS will take over from Hamas inside the next three years and attempt to turn the region into a theocratic, dictatorial caliphate that will make both its predecessors look positively enlightened.
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Hamas has not 'neutralised Fatah, Fatah has marginalised itself because of its collaboration, but Hamas isn't popular either. It can easily be argued that they are firing back useless rockets because they feel they have nothing to lose (though the population obviously has). Personally I have no idea who would win any elections right now, maybe it would be Hamas, maybe not. As for ISIS: ISIS is mostly a paper tiger. It's not even popular in the Syrian and Iraqi regions it occupies, it coasts on foreign fighters and Saudi money, plus the heavy weaponry they now captured. ISIS is not going to last.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hermit
My sole preference, as I said, is the Israeli government's reasonable semblance to a democracy (and need I point out once more that I know it does not apply to Palestinians?) in light of the contrasting forms of government surrounding it, which are either theocratic, dictatorial or a mix of both.
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It's not even a very reasonable semblance if you discount how it doesn't apply to the Palestinians. It is being undermined systematically by the extreme right who keep introducing legislation that discriminates the Palestinians, but also secular Jews (there is no Israeli nationality, you can be 'Jewish', 'Arab', Druze or Circassian). Even Lebanon and Jordan make better democracies, but there's also Tunisia a bit farther away. And Israel's democracy isn't healthier than Turkey's.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hermit
Bit of a hot potato, that, and not popular with socialists, or even social democrats, I know, but then I never was all that enamoured of conformity. If Palestine ever comes into existence as a nation it will be a theocracy, a dictatorship or a mix of both. Covenant or not, it will not be a democracy in anything but name.
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Yeah, you said that before, but what do you base this on? Not on anything that goes on in the Palestinian territories. Palestinians in the West Bank are certainly not theocrats, Hamas never got a majority there. As for Gaza, as I said the main reason Hamas is popular there is the perceived collaboration of Fatah/the PA. Every time they have tried to introduce stricter rules they have been met with protests. Seriously the only reason why Westerners prefer Israel over Palestine is cultural. We have been programmed to accept Israel as a Western country or even a 'Light among the Nations' and 'the only democracy in the Middle East' and to think of Palestine as a backwards Third World place where they don't share 'our values'. Even if you see it for what it is, it is still big Rock Candy Mountain in our subsconcious.