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Why I'm Hopeful about the Middle East Uprisings

(Washington Post) Natan Sharansky - For decades, the free world's policy toward the Middle East was based on the desire for stability, purchased by deals struck with leaders. That the leaders were corrupt autocrats mattered little. This was rationalized by considerations of realpolitik and the comforting assertion that we had no right to judge the moral standards of societies different from our own. Some in the West have reflexively turned to other, already organized structures within the societies shaped by dictatorship: notably, the army or Islamist groups. There is another option: to see the region's democratic dissidents as our real partners. Can the democratic reformers of the Middle East be empowered to shape a better future? The Muslim Brotherhood is not yet strong enough to seize control and foreclose on genuine reform. Alongside the massive foreign aid the free world has committed to these lands, by insisting on clear and enforceable conditions, we can help forge the building blocks of a free society: a free press, freedom of religion, the rule of law and civil-society reform. Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, spent nine years as a political prisoner in the Soviet gulag. He is the author of The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror.
2011-03-14 00:00:00
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