Sharansky argues in favor of democracy, freedom

CHICAGO - Adnan Al-Janabi

March 2005

Natan Sharansky’s book, The Case for Democracy, is certainly one of the inspiring texts one might come upon. Just ignore some of his opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and you'll enjoy this read.

Sharansky argues that the free world should not favor stability and its status quo over spreading freedom among the nations that are still living under dictatorships.

He says that in the same manner that the principles of freedom and human rights once defeated a tyrant communist superpower, eliminated the threat of a third world war and emancipated the citizens of the former Soviet Union who had been living, until the USSR's demise, in fear; the world should also stand to the challenge of terrorism and face it with unwavering determination aiming at the emancipation of its followers who have been the victims of the propaganda of their tyrant regimes. These regimes, according to Sharansky, cannot survive without the creation of the illusion of a foreign enemy.

For this purpose, the author compares the tyranny of some Arab regimes to that of the former Soviet Union. He describes victims of such regimes as "double-thinkers," meaning those who conceal their hate of their regimes while at the same time swear allegiance to them due to their fear of consequent repression.

He adds that these people will join forces even with the foreign powers, which their regimes had been depicting as evil powers, for the sake of freedom. Therefore, the West should pursue its drive to democratizing fear societies and stand their ground on this despite mounting losses, as is currently the case in Iraq, and possible future shakeups, as would be the case in a possible war on North Korea, Iran or Syria.

On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, however, Sharansky unsuccessfully argues that the only reason behind the failure of the peace negotiations in the past was the tyrant character of the Palestinian Authority. Late PA's leader Yassir Arafat was certainly a dictator who didn't deliver on his promises to stop Palestinian violence, who surrounded himself with corrupt aids and who put on double faces - a peaceful one before the West and an aggressive one before his own people. Yet, this does not hide the fact that successive Israeli leaders, in an attempt to win the votes of their rightist constituencies, adopted uncalled-for and harsh policies against Palestinians thus further aggravating the problem and provoking many Palestinians to join fundamental groups.

Serving as a minister on the successive Israeli governments since the mid 1990s, Sharansky's justification of the Israeli stances sounds more subjective than impartial. Yet overall, he argues well the need of democratizing the Arab world and undermines the hypotheses of those who accuse the Arabs and Muslims of being inherently opposed to democracy.