August 8th, 2008 by Adam

In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, Natan Sharansky and Bassem Eid suggest that peace between the Israelis and Palestinians requires democratic reform and an empowered civil society in the Palestinian Territories. The two suggest that Israeli and American passivity towards Fatah’s corruption and flattening of civil society allowed Hamas’ political rise and made peace unlikely. They suggest peace efforts not be based on who is ruling, but on how they rule. Sharansky and Eid conclude by saying, “It is high time that Palestinian civil society be fully recognized by the international community as a prerequisite to peace, not as an obstacle to it. If Palestinian civil society is not empowered, the Fatah-controlled West Bank may soon be ruled by Hamas, and Fatah leaders there may find themselves one day having to rely on Israel’s Supreme Court to save them.”

Posted in Democracy Promotion, Hamas, Israel, Mideast Peace Plan, Palestine |