(Huffington Post) Yuli Edelstein - New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman takes time out from his Cairo reportage to castigate the government of Israel for not urging the American government to hasten the departure of Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak, after all, merely made Egypt's American alliance and its peace treaty with Israel the cornerstones of his foreign policy for thirty years. One could wish that Mr. Friedman's enthusiasm for democracy in the Arab world were consistent and principled. If it were, he might have warned, as some Israelis did, against importing Yasser Arafat and the PLO to the West Bank and imposing his dictatorial rule upon the Palestinians. Like democrats everywhere, I wish for the Egyptian people to enjoy the blessings of liberty, and hope that their popular revolution leads to it. But I do not delude myself that the path is likely to be either quick or certain. The Egyptian people's uprising creates hope for the eventual emergence of democracy, but it also opens the door for demagogues who, as in Iran and Lebanon, will fan hatred and fanaticism and try to ride them to power. The writer is Israel's Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs.
2011-02-18 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive