No one, save the Egyptians themselves, would like to see a truly democratic Egypt more than Israel.
A real democracy in the greatest Arab nation would be a dream come true. It would safeguard the calm coexistence of Egypt’s many parts: Muslims, academics, traditionalists, Facebook surfers. A real democracy would adhere to a modern constitution, sustain an independent judiciary, protect the Christian minority’s rights, respect dissidents, and stop persecuting homosexuals. It would combat widespread corruption, work to resuscitate Egypt’s crumbling economy, and find ways to feed and educate its poor. A real Egyptian democracy would never scrap peace with Israel in favor of renewed war.
But no one should be more concerned than the Israelis if a less-than-democratic Egypt emerges from the present turbulence.
No one, save the Egyptians themselves, would like to see a truly democratic Egypt more than Israel.
A real democracy in the greatest Arab nation would be a dream come true. It would safeguard the calm coexistence of Egypt’s many parts: Muslims, academics, traditionalists, Facebook surfers. A real democracy would adhere to a modern constitution, sustain an independent judiciary, protect the Christian minority’s rights, respect dissidents, and stop persecuting homosexuals. It would combat widespread corruption, work to resuscitate Egypt’s crumbling economy, and find ways to feed and educate its poor. A real Egyptian democracy would never scrap peace with Israel in favor of renewed war.
But no one should be more concerned than the Israelis if a less-than-democratic Egypt emerges from the present turbulence.
Herein lies the worry. Democracies do not emerge fully equipped from ordinary people’s heartfelt protestations. Democracies need honest legislators, professional judges, incorruptible civil servants, and unbiased public-opinion makers. Such institutions will not grow out of the cracked pavement of Tahrir Square alone.
President Obama has omitted this truth from his statements on Egypt’s protest, just as his predecessors failed to mention it when they encouraged elections and majority rule in Iraq and in Gaza. One prevailing view is that the well-meaning West is egging on pseudo-democratic processes where majoritarian rhetoric trumps substantive democracy.
If Egypt’s revolution is usurped by the Muslim Brotherhood, the emergence of an autocratic strongman far worse than Mubarak will be only a matter of time. Egypt’s remilitarized Sinai border with Israel will flare up. With Iran on the brink of nuclear capability, Lebanon taken over by Hizbullah, and Syria and Jordan facing possible upheavals, the future Middle East will look like a boiling cauldron of uncertain politics and near-certain hostility.
One can only hope that the new Israelites are the freedom fighters on Tahrir Square, the brave protesters, the tank-defying demonstrators. If they become the genuine face of a new Egypt, most Israelis would cheer them, rejoice with them, and take pride in being their neighbors.
Oz-Salzberger is an Israeli writer and historian, professor at the University of Haifa, and Leon Liberman chair in Modern Israel Studies at Monash University.