I’m actually beginning to enjoy this Arab Spring, a little. You don’t believe me? I like democracy. Democracy has been very kind to me. I’ve been elected Prime Minister of Israel twice. I made a speech expressing hope for democracy in Egypt and even made a practical suggestion — a regional Marshall Plan to put all those unemployed Arabs to work building housing and infrastructure. I really do hope for the best.
But do I believe the best is going to happen? That’s another story. Let’s examine some recent examples of democracy on the march in my neighborhood. In Lebanon six years ago, the people went into the square and drove out the Syrians, or seemed to, and had their elections — and now they have a government controlled by Hizballah. When the Palestinians had elections, Hamas won. The Iranians have elections even, in their own peculiar way. Hooray for democracy.
Egypt will have elections now too. The Muslim Brotherhood is very smart, very patient. It will contest only 35% of the seats in the Egyptian parliament. It won’t stand a major candidate for President. It will stand back and watch the economy collapse, and then it will ride to the rescue in the next round of elections, in maybe five years.
Already the Egyptians are telling us privately, “Hosni Mubarak gave you a free ride on the peace process. We can’t afford to do that because we want to represent — democratically, mind you! — the will of the people. And the Egyptian people have about the same regard for Israel as for Mubarak’s bathroom. So if you don’t get moving on a peace settlement, we’re going to let the world know we’re not very happy.” They actually said that to a delegation from our Foreign Ministry in Cairo a few weeks ago, except for the bathroom part.
