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Source: http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2011/10/06/how-not-to-help-palestinian-democracy/
How Not to Help Palestinian Democracy
(Council on Foreign Relations) Elliott Abrams - This week the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) admitted the Palestine National Council (PNC) as a "Partner for Democracy." PACE consists of people elected to their national parliaments. But the PNC is not the Palestinian parliament; that is called the PLC or Palestinian Legislative Council. The PNC is instead part of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and its members are not and have never been elected. It is simply scandalous that the PNC was admitted to any form of relationship with the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly. The PACE members were not willing to apply normal democratic standards to Palestinian political life. Once again they have engaged in what George W. Bush called "the soft bigotry of low expectations" and in so doing have abandoned those Palestinians truly engaged in a struggle for democracy.