When next you hear the empty boast* that Israel is the Middle East's only democracy, consider its sabre-rattling response to Lebanon's perfectly democratic vote on the weekend, giving Hezbollah and its Christian allies over half the seats in Lebanon's parliamentary elections:
"Hezbollah=Lebanon. The state of Israel will not differentiate between the sovereign State of Lebanon and Hezbollah, and will view Lebanon as responsible for any action from within its territory." (Israeli education minister Naftali Bennett, quoted in Hezbollah allies set for parliament gains, Tom Perry, Reuters/Sydney Morning Herald, 8/5/18)
IOW, Lebanon must be collectively punished for voting the wrong way.
Just as the Palestinians were following their perfectly democratic vote in 2006, which led to Hamas's overwhelming victory over the corrupt Fatah - by withholding Palestinian tax and customs revenues collected from Palestinian importers; by closing the Karni crossing, the major pipeline for food and industry supplies into Gaza (or, as Sharon adviser Dov Weisglass infamously referred to it, "putting the Palestinians on a diet."); and by refusing to allow newly elected Palestinian officials to travel from Gaza to the West Bank.
[*See my 1/12/16 post Israel is a Democracy & Other Fairy Tales.]
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