If Israel’s response to Islamic popular success in Egypt and elsewhere manifests itself in the further retrenchment of its religious and political positions, then only a hardening of battle lines can be expected, a condition that helps the overall situation not one bit. Each side becoming the mirror-image of the other leaves very little room for manoeuvre or advancement towards a favourable outcome for all.

Or does it? What if the reflection presented to them was one in which they do see themselves with a clarity never before experienced? Would that invoke a desire for radical change, for a refocusing of the entire picture, seeing in it something that could be of far greater significance?
The liberal viewpoint cannot reveal such detail; it is too self-absorbed, too inward-looking to project the true reality of what’s going on. The conservative one is even worse. It refuses to acknowledge the need for any reappraisal whatsoever.

The only alternative, therefore, is to throw a ‘wild card’ into the mix, an irrational element that stirs up the moribund nature of this apparently insoluble impasse and, in doing so, highlights options hitherto hidden from sight, never before considered as such.

Http://yorketowers.blogspot.com

And, as is so often seen in the affairs of men, it is sometimes only by the most desperate of measures that extraction from the direst of predicaments can be achieved.

Unless you happen to be gay, a woman, a Christian, or any other minority. Mr. Lowi is the perfect example of the pseudo-intellectual leftist European who is incapable of dealing with any reality outside the EU.

They have an uncanny resemblance to the comments in the Jerusalem Post – filled with pure invective, and heavily laced with personal attacks on the writer.

Not to mention abysmal ignorance.

To somehow bash Israel over this reality is absurd.

He doesn’t like dictators, or radicals, or any other lunatics. He appears to just support people who want peace.

The only people this offends are people who just want to bash Israel.

Can I just say – I’m a liberal and a very strong supporter of Israel, and think that a big chunk of the political positions taken by +972 are just silly.

I’m also dismayed (but unsurprised) by the outcome of the Egyptian elections.

HOWEVER …

” I would have supported Mubarak. I know the road to democracy and reform was never going to be easy in Egypt or any other Arab country, but let’s face it – this is terrible. ”

Yes, of course it is terrible.

But there is no alternative to democracy. You can’t expect a population to be subject to a dictatorship – not only is that an outrageous position, it is also untenable.

Egypt may be headed for disaster – or it may pull back from the brink. Either way, the essence of democracy is that these choices (and their consequences) are a matter for the people.

There’s no alternative to democracy. There never was.

@Larry: I read your comparison to a military dictatorship vs. a religious dictatorship. In Turkey, in 2002 and a few years afterwards, there was exactly this kind of a vocal concern when Erdogan’s party (AKP) got to the government right after a very big economic crisis early that year. At that time the so-called secular and “left” parties got very worried about this. But, fortunately, what happened was their time in government made that ruling party to become much more moderate over the time, and I believe this is because once they were in the government they understood they had to deal with running an already strained economy, relationships with the EU, be pragmatic and etc. Now the same ruling party has a near 50% support base, but I really suspect if the religious aspect is more than 15-20%. Also it was very interesting to note that Erdogan advocated secularism during his visit to Egypt last summer.