The Globe and Mail had an intriguing profile today about a Canadian professor working in China, who is arguing that democracy is not all it's cracked up to be.
Hello! That's been painfully obvious ever since Hitler was democratically elected in 1932.
But none of that has impinged on Israel's UK ambassador's eagerness to provide this op-ed to the Telegraph today.
Ambassador Taub trots out the usual shibboleths about terror here and terror there. Hamas is a terror group, don't you know. Not only that, but they've borrowed from the Hezbollah lexicon and, oh my God, even improved upon it!
As if such a thing is even thinkable...
The entire op-ed is designed to stoke fear in the diaspora Jewish community. It's a continuation of the age-old "we have no partner for peace" gambit.
People who are serious about peace make it a point to talk to their enemies. That guy who wants to wipe you from the map? That's the guy you need to talk to.
And the old "only democracy in the Middle East" tale is getting a bit stale too. Hamas, the people Taub can't talk to, because they don't like him, were democratically elected in 2006.
Whatever else they are, they are also the democratically elected government of what Charles Krauthammer has called a Palestinian state.
So Israel, once the only democracy in the Middle East, has lots of company now. Not only Hamas, but thanks to Arab Spring, their Muslim Brotherhood brothers on the other side of the Red Sea.
Labels like "terrorist" and "democracy" have by far outlived their shelf life.
Let's get serious about peace. Forget the name-calling and sit down face to face with both Hezbollah and Hamas.
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