{"id":11624,"date":"2011-04-25T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T11:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=11624"},"modified":"2011-04-18T09:16:01","modified_gmt":"2011-04-18T08:16:01","slug":"mideast-democracy-israel%e2%80%99s-diamond-in-the-rough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2011\/04\/mideast-democracy-israel%e2%80%99s-diamond-in-the-rough\/","title":{"rendered":"MidEast Democracy: Israel\u2019s Diamond in the Rough"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe toppling of Egypt\u2019s modern-day pharaoh through peaceful mass protests, aided by Facebook and Twitter, marks a watershed for Egypt and the entire Arab world,\u201d wrote Larry Diamond, in a noteworthy February 14 op-ed<\/a> in the San Francisco Chronicle<\/em>. \u201cContrary to widespread anxieties in the U.S. foreign policy establishment,\u201d the prominent advocate of American taxpayer-funded \u201cdemocracy promotion<\/a>\u201d maintained, \u201cit will also serve the long-term interests of the United States\u2014and Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diamond, a founding co-editor of the National Endowment for Democracy\u2019s Journal of Democracy<\/em>, was pleased with initial developments in post-Mubarak Egypt. \u201cThink of what could have happened,\u201d he pointed out. \u201cMany observers (including myself) worried that the growing alienation of young Egyptians might flow in anti-American, anti-Israeli and radical Islamist directions\u2026. So far, none of these have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having once co-edited a book<\/a> on the threat to Israel\u2019s democracy with an Israeli counter-terrorism specialist<\/a>, Diamond was not surprisingly \u201creassured\u201d by the dearth of anti-Israeli sentiment in Tahrir Square. \u201cFew protesters are calling for abrogation of Egypt\u2019s peace with Israel,\u201d he noted. \u201cMost protesters \u2026 know their aspirations for human dignity and economic opportunity can only be met with far-reaching internal reforms, and that the worn-out theme of anti-Zionism is a divergence from that. Israel and its friends should thus welcome democratic change in Egypt.\u201d<\/p>\n

The director of Stanford University\u2019s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law<\/a>, which includes a program<\/a> on Arab Reform and Democracy, scarcely expected it would turn out otherwise, though. After all, he had long been advocating<\/a> such an Israel-friendly democracy for the region. Speaking at the Commonwealth Club of California<\/a> on May 7, 2008, he criticized the Bush administration for having \u201cwalked away\u201d from its post-9\/11 \u201cforward strategy for freedom\u201d in the Middle East after Islamist parties such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Egypt\u2019s Muslim Brotherhood saw varying degrees of electoral success. Instead, he called for a new policy of gradual democratization which would allow time for a \u201cmoderate\u201d party to emerge as \u201ca third alternative\u201d to the region\u2019s \u201cbifurcated playing field\u201d of autocrats versus Islamists. According to Diamond, the democrats he had met in Cairo the previous month told him: \u201cWe are only asking for a gradual opening to democracy. We\u2019re not even asking for democracy tomorrow. We don\u2019t even want democracy tomorrow. Because we need time.\u201d Presumably, three years has given NED sufficient time to quietly<\/a> nurture<\/a> an acceptable Egyptian democracy.<\/p>\n

The well-organized protests hardly came as a surprise either. At the State Department-sponsored<\/a> Alliance of Youth Movement\u2019s inaugural 2008 summit<\/a> in New York, which brought together<\/a> experts in social media with digital activists from around the world, Diamond moderated a panel discussion entitled \u201cHow to Begin: Taking it to the Streets<\/a>.\u201d Just over two years later, when Egyptians did take to the streets, they were organized and directed<\/a> by the April 6 Youth Movement<\/a>, which had been well represented<\/a> at the New York summit.<\/p>\n

In a reminder of what a small world democracy promotion is, Diamond was introduced by AYM co-founder Jared Cohen, the then State Department official<\/a> charged with counter-radicalization in the Middle East, who described his Stanford mentor<\/a> as \u201cone of the people that\u2019s had the most profound impact on my life.\u201d Interestingly, Diamond is not the only prominent NED figure to have influenced the precocious Cohen<\/a>, who travelled extensively throughout the Middle East to meet with pro-democracy activists prior to the \u201cArab Spring,\u201d making sure<\/a> they had access<\/a> to \u201cconnection technologies<\/a>.\u201d Referring to one-time NED director Frank Carlucci, Cohen told the New Yorker<\/em>: \u201cSecretary Carlucci has been a wonderful mentor to me.\u201d Like the former deputy director of the CIA, who had an uncanny knack<\/a> for popping up in countries where coups were taking place, Cohen just happened<\/a> to be in Egypt<\/a> during the street protests<\/a> that toppled Mubarak.<\/p>\n

But if peaceful protests fail to achieve the desired regime change, Diamond is not averse to the use of force\u2014or hyperbole\u2014to bring democracy to the Arab world. In a March 15 op-ed<\/a> in the staunchly pro-Israel New Republic<\/em> (which unreservedly endorses<\/a> the Arab revolution), he invoked the Holocaust<\/a> in an attempt to shame Obama into aiding Libya\u2019s \u201cfreedom fighters<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tireless advocate of Arab democracy<\/a> somehow also finds time for the Iranians. He\u2019s on the advisory council of the Iran Strategy Task Force<\/a>\u2014a joint initiative of Freedom House<\/a> and the Progressive Policy Institute<\/a>, a hawkish pro-Israel \u201cthink tank\u201d\u2014which is aimed at shifting America\u2019s Iran policy toward \u201ca more aggressive focus on democracy.\u201d And he also coordinates the Iran Democracy Project<\/a> at the Hoover Institution, whose goal is \u201cto map out possible trajectories for transitions to democracy and free markets in the Middle East, beginning with Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

While many find it hard to believe that the United States could be induced<\/a> to facilitate regime change in a country ruled by a supposedly pliant<\/a> dictator like Mubarak, there may be far greater surprises in store. In his October 2, 2010 New York Times<\/em> column<\/a> entitled \u201cThird Party Rising,\u201d Thomas Friedman favourably cited Diamond\u2019s suspect<\/a>, albeit justified, repudiation of both Democrats and Republicans: \u201cWe basically have two bankrupt parties bankrupting the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Americans increasingly frustrated with their own country\u2019s \u201cdemocratic gap<\/a>,\u201d could Uncle NED<\/a> be about to bring home its regime change formula<\/a> in order to co-opt the revolutionary spirit<\/a> there too?<\/p>\n

______________________<\/p>\n

Maidhc \u00d3 Cathail writes<\/a> about U.S. foreign policy and the Middle East. He also edits The Passionate Attachment<\/a> blog.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe toppling of Egypt\u2019s modern-day pharaoh through peaceful mass protests, aided by Facebook and Twitter, marks a watershed for Egypt and the entire Arab world,\u201d wrote Larry Diamond, in a noteworthy February 14 op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle. \u201cContrary to widespread anxieties in the U.S. foreign policy establishment,\u201d the prominent advocate of American taxpayer-funded \u201cdemocracy promotion\u201d maintained, \u201cit will also serve the long-term interests of the United States\u2014and Israel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-east-north-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11624\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}