When the choice comes up between the Israelis and the
Palestinians, this writer chooses the democrats of Israel, in all
their ascendency from British parliamentary tradition. Disraeli,
famous Briton, famous parliamentarian, famous Jew, said:
"Yes, I am a Jew, and when the ancestors of the
right
honourable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown
island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon."
Left wing support for the PLO and Arafat is rooted in the Marxist habit of finding room in the tent for any opponent of mainstream democracy. The heroes of the Soviet Union are no longer available, so Arafat and his Islamist fellow travellers are ready substitutes. For Marxists and doctrinaire socialists, the attraction to extremist politics stems from the need to orient away from the principles of liberal democracy. To embrace citizen equality and the essential uncertainty of free voting is to disavow the elitist collectivism behind both Marxism and the religious based dictatorships of the Middle East.
Israel is a democracy, operating on the British model, with all the pluralistic strengths and frailties that go with having faith in the Rule of Law. Chaos is never far away and never more so when the country is under attack. Democracy has survived in Israel through all the wars with the Arab states just as Churchill's Britain maintained Parliament through the focused Nazi evil of the Second World War. How much of the hatred of Israel, apart from the basic anti-Semitism, is due to the Israeli act of importing the European model of democracy to a part of the world that embraces authoritarian government rooted in religious feudalism?
When ordinary Canadians have to choose, they will support Israel, as they support the Americans in their war against terrorism. It is, after all, the same conflict waged in different theatres of war. There is no crime, no sin in choosing to be partial to the countries that practice democracy. Canadians have a right to be partisans in their solidarity with free nations That is a first principle in the choice between Israel and the Palestinians.