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Sharansky: Help Palestinians Build a Real Democracy

(New York Times) David M. Halbfinger - Natan Sharansky, who fought the Soviets from inside a gulag, is retiring as head of the Jewish Agency for Israel at age 70. Sharansky insists that peace could be achieved only between Israel and a legitimately democratic Palestinian Authority - because real democracies do not try to kill one another. While he is quick to acknowledge the suffering of Palestinians, he lays it at the feet of the entire international community. "It is a thousand times more difficult to be a dissident among the Palestinians than among the Soviets," he said. "There, you knew that even if you will be isolated, you are part of a much bigger world of free thought, and this world is with you. Here, who cares?" It is "the free world" that has cynically allowed Palestinian leaders to keep their people in refugee camps for generations and, of late, to send Gaza residents to be shot by Israeli soldiers along the fence. "And Palestinians will suffer again, and again, and again until the free world will say, 'Enough'," and "stop dealing with these corrupt dictators," save up the money for a future Marshall Plan and instead start helping Palestinians build a real democracy. He notes that every human being craves both freedom and a sense of belonging, and that freedom cannot be imposed, but must be built from the ground up.
2018-07-03 00:00:00
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