With perpetual political turmoil in Lebanon, Shiite theocracy in Iran, United States occupation in Iraq, monarchies in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and a dictatorship in Syria, Israel may very well be the Middle East’s only functioning democracy.
Israel may boast this title, but it’s relevance has been limited to the country’s borders. The state has become devoid of democracy with respect to its foreign policy.
Elective government is an affirmation by a state or group that it can be wrong. It is a belief that truth or commonwealth is most easily reached with cooperation. To avoid it is to increase the risk of error. In other words, democracy is rooted in cliché; two heads are better than one.
With this understanding, how does a state achieve democracy at the international level? At the national level, a form of direct or representative democracy would be adequate. At the international level, however, democracy is reached via collaboration and cooperation with other states.
Now the difficulty Israel faces with this task is apparent. Bordering Southern Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Syria, Israel — when asked to engage in “international democracy” — is faced with a closed fist. This often times encourages Israel to take a unilateral approach to foreign policy within the region. As a result Israel foreign policy is prone to error often characterized with disregard to consequences outside of its borders.
Decisions made in the Iraq War, for example, are largely viewed as unilateral — pushed by the United States with no regard to allies who were critical of America’s actions.
With such hostility in the Middle East, Israel has found allies in the West, namely Britain, France and the U.S.
It is understandable when Israel acts outside the interest of the countries it borders. However, it is surprising when it disregards its allies. When this disregard becomes apparent it makes it easier for extremists to question Israel’s excuse of bordering hostility. This fuels unnecessary turmoil in the country and the region at large.
On Jan. 20, Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, Hamas’ military commander, was found dead in a Dubai luxury hotel.
According to Haaretz, a prominent Israeli newspaper, Israel stated on Jan. 31 that Al-Mabhouh was responsible for smuggling Iranian arms to Gaza but declined to comment on accusations that the state’s intelligence agency, Mossad, was responsible for his assassination.
Dubai police announced on Feb. 15 that they suspect 11 people, with European passports, of the murder of Al-Mabhouh. The following day six foreign-born Israelis, who share the same names as those suspected of the murder, denied involvement in the Mabhouh assassination, saying their identities were stolen.
As this story continues to unfold it becomes more and more apparent that Israel’s Mossad stole the identities of six British-Israeli dual citizens, as well as the identities of French, German and Irish nationals, in order to carry out an assassination of the Hamas military commander.
Britain’s Sunday Times reported on Feb. 21, from sources “with knowledge of Mossad,” that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was briefed on the assassination of Al-Mabhouh.
Britain, a key Israeli ally, vehemently denies any involvement in the assassination. A spokesmen for Britain’s Foreign Office asserted, “suggestions that [Britain] had prior warning or was in some way complicit in [the assassination] are baseless.”
The Israeli government’s disregard of international law — let alone common courtesy — comes off with an air of arrogance. Israel’s parliamentary opposition leader Tzipi Livni hailed the killing. Livni said, “The fact that a terrorist was killed— and it doesn’t matter if it was in Dubai or Gaza — is good news to those fighting terrorism.”
The thing is it does matter. To enter a foreign country with stolen passports and stolen identities, in order to assassinate an individual who has not been convicted of a crime is no less terrorist than to launch rockets at unsuspecting citizens.
Even George W. Bush appealed to the U.N. before invading Iraq or at least he tried.
If Israel is to be a beacon of democracy in the Middle East then it must start acting like it. Maybe, then, will its “enemies” follow suit.
Zien Halwani is a sophomore biology and philosophy double major and the opinions editor for the Daily 49er.
