AT LEAST THE ISRAELI LEFT GETS IT:

Reasons of hope in Israel (Shimon Peres, October 21, 2004, Boston Globe)

WINDS OF change are sweeping across the world. Science, technology, democracy, and feminism are transforming our world at a rapid pace. We may look at our world and find cause for fear. We should take a closer look and find much cause for hope. A battle between tradition and modernity is being waged in the Middle East.

This battle is not a clash of civilizations. Rather, it is a clash within a civilization. It is the clash between those who offer only a past and those who call upon free people to seize the future and find their own route to liberty, prosperity, and peace. Witness the bombings and killings in the Middle East and you make think that change is only for the worse. But look at Turkey, Libya, Afghanistan, Egypt, even Syria, and a different story emerges.

Turkey is embarking on a promising path that will serve to consolidate its gains in liberalizing its society and economy following the recommendation of the European Commission to open negotiations with Turkey on its admittance to the European Union. What is more remarkable is that this process is being led by a Muslim political party, which is proving to the world that there is no inherent contradiction between Islam and modernity.

Libya, until recently a black hole in the Middle East, a country bent on sponsoring terrorism and acquiring nuclear weapons, has made a remarkable turnabout and is dismantling its weapons programs.

Afghanistan has experienced mostly calm elections and an enthusiastic electorate. Syria's president is speaking of peace, and Egypt is slowly searching for a path to modernity. Even in Iraq, recent small successes are suggesting the possibility of a different future.

Throughout the Middle East, voices calling for openness and democracy are slowly and tentatively being heard. These voices cannot but triumph. Terrorists and extremist fundamentalists have nothing to offer their people. There is no place in the future for countries that live almost exclusively on agriculture. There is no place for countries where women are oppressed, and there is no place for countries that stifle free scientific inquiry, thought, creativity, and speech.

This is the process that John Kerry and the Left's other New Realists want to stop in favor of the security they believe authoritarian oppression provides.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 21, 2004 10:27 AM