A Druze President of the Jewish State

Here's how it all happened: Israeli President and all-around sleazy guy Moshe Katsav is "temporarily suspended" because the Attorney General is investigating him on rape and abuse of power charges. The acting President is Dalia Itzik, but she's going abroad. So the Presidency of the Zionist entity falls to Majali Wahabi, a Druze.

Examples of religious tolerance and flourishing civil rights in Israel poses a problem for Arab intellectuals. There is no example in the Arab world of a religious sect which could concentrate all power, willfully giving control to another religious sect. In Lebanon, power is divided between the sects because it would mean civil war if one party tried to dominate the political scene. In Syria, a religious minority maintains its power through force of arms. In Israel, the Jews are willing to live under an (albeit temporary) Druze President.

I remember that I attended a lecture on the role of think tanks in the Middle East during my first month in Lebanon, and one of the speakers recounted his experience living in Egypt during the first Israeli invasion of Lebanon. He spoke of it as a major intellectual turning point. There were massive protests of leftist Israelis in Tel Aviv -- but what was happening in Cairo? Not a thing. The Egyptian government had forbidden any public expression of protest.

But hey, let's drop all this. We wouldn't want to risk acknowledging any good qualities of Israel. Quick, someone mention the horrible Israeli repression of the Shebaa Farms!