Back in the USSR

I think that any student of totalitarian regimes will find the Israeli plunge into the abyss most enlightening.

Let's review the facts.

1) Democracy is Government by the People- The Likud (not Sharon) was elected on a specific platform that did not include the unilateral withdrawal from anywhere. The Likud rejected that position in a plebiscite. Sharon rejected the voters. He knows better. Hence, he bulldozed democracy and pushed through the retreat.

2) Democracy guarantees freedom of Speech- According to a new law going through the Knesset, passive resistance to the retreat from Gaza is punishable by jail. Anyone who opposes Sharon/Peres is delegitimized as a potential murderer of ministers or of Sharon, himself. Anyone yelling at a minister will soon be incarercerated in Administrative detention. I wish I could plead with all the hotheads not to give the thought police ammunition to further delegitimize themselves and us. The Pravda/Izvestia reporters at Haaretz and ITV are just waiting for you. Don't act out!

3) Democracy Can Self-Destruct- The USSR and PRC were both legal governments that were elected (once) and from then on knew better than the people what the people needed.

I've been a Likud member for many years. Next week, I'm resigning.

I've been a Zionist all my life. Now, I don't know why I bothered.

I"ve been an Israeli for many years. For the first time in those many years I realize that in the game called Democracy, the United States of America wins, hands down. Israel, in its suicidal march of folly, wouldn't know democracy if it fell on it.