Breaking the Vicious Cycle

It’s a month since the Israeli elections, and Ehud Olmert is still working to put his cabinet together. Coalition building takes time.

Israel is at the center of the Middle East problem, and has been throughout its 58-year existence. Each generation brings new “Saladins” seeking—by liberating Jerusalem from the infidel—to become a hero to the region. First there was Egypt’s Nasser, then Libya’s Qaddaffi, then Iraq’s Saddam, and now Al Qaeda’s bin Laden and Iran’s Ahmadinejad.

These “heroes” have shaped the region's politics. They are threats to the U.S. as well as Israel, not only because they gain popularity on the “Arab street” by seeking to do Israel in, but also because they threaten to control the region’s oil.

The region needs economic development that puts young people to work. That alone will undermine anti-Israeli militancy. And economic development comes from governments that respond to popular needs. But the Middle East never gets to good government, because Israel begets Muslim “Saladins” who beget the U.S. counter action of protecting reactionary regimes in the name of “stability.” And reactionary regimes beget new despotic “heroes.”

Bush is trying to break this vicious cycle by supporting democracy, not despots. He knows that in the long run, it’s jobs for young people that will move the region forward.

Democracy + capitalism = peace.