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Will a Palestinian Election Matter?

(JNS) Jonathan S. Tobin - Fatah and Hamas have set the dates for the first Palestinian elections in 15 years, with a legislative election in May and a presidential vote in July. Many Americans once held high hopes for the idea of spreading democracy across the Middle East. But as the U.S. intervention in Iraq demonstrated, it was a mistake to think you could parachute into a country where the rule of law had not previously existed - or had any experience of representative government - and produce anything remotely resembling democracy. Elections in the absence of a democratic political culture are meaningless. Approximately half of the Palestinian electorate still believes that the right policy for their leaders is armed conflict against Israel. As long as Palestinians remain mired in a political culture that prizes the shedding of Jewish blood over good government, democracy will actually make peace even less likely.
2021-02-25 00:00:00
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