Leading by example
: Micah Halpern at Jewsweek suggests that as they set up their new nation and government, the Palestinians should follow the example of… Israel:
Palestinians have very few examples after which to model themselves when it comes to creating a state. The notion of a modern state is very new to them. Ironically, one of their best examples is a country they will be loathe to emulate — Israel.
The countries in the region, with the lone exception of Israel, are all Muslim states. With the exceptions of Turkey and Lebanon they are all dictatorships, powerfully ruled by monarchs and totalitarians.
Leadership and hegemony have a long history in the Arab world. But most of it is family based and tribal based, certainly a far cry from a Western system of national government….
The present leadership in the Palestinian Authority is different. Unlike Palestinian President Arafat and unlike most of the rest of the Arab world, Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen does not want to create a dictatorship. Like them, he has an underlying distrust of anything Western and hatred towards Israel. But Abu Mazen understands that that’s not the way to build a country or to build a future.
