ideological criminal

Sir, Nick Kochan, (”Mideast investment will produce a peace dividend“, August 30) writes, “It may not be long before Israel’s claim to be the only democratic Middle Eastern country, so much part of its argument for support, is challenged.” Kochan’s comment, and others’ like it that assume Israel’s status as a democratic nation, remind me of the late Israel Shahak’s question posed to Alexander Cockburn and James Ridgeway during an interview for the Village Voice that appeared November 19, 1980:

It would be a good thing, I think, for Americans to ask themselves once a year whether the USA was a democracy before 1865; that is, before the constitutional abolition of slavery. The situation of the state of Israel and of the territories occupied by it is quite analogous. Just as the situation of the occupied territories resembles that of the pre-1865 South, so the situation inside the state of Israel resembles that of many states of the USA some 50 or 60 years ago when racism was popular, and when the really influential Ku Klux Klan made and unmade politicians, just as Gush Emunim now does in Israel.

Shahak’s question is as apt today as it was nearly 26 years ago. Of course, I welcome more democratic institutions in the Middle East (and elsewhere), yet we need not wait for them to exist in order to question Israel’s claim of being a democracy.