Aside from Israel are there any democracies in the Middle East?
replyMy observation was that more democracy in the Middle East is not what Israel or the US is interested in, given that the people's choice there would be overwhelmingly against Israeli and US interests.
replyThey replaced the last democratic choice in Egypt with another military dictator, they keep the widely unpopular autocrat in Jordan on his throne with military and intelligence subsidies, have established and propped up a network of autocratic Gulf states that toe the line...
So yeah, I would not be surprised that Israel and the US would be more than happy to but a scion of the previous Iranian autocratic dynasty back on the throne there.
Lebanon is democracy. It is true that system is sectarian (power-sharing among religious groups) but still a democracy.
replyIsrael's a democracy the way the 3/5ths compromise promoted democracy.
replyIran elects their President. Is it a shining example of a democracy, no, but it has a much stronger democratic tradition than say Saudi Arabia. If the US and British hadn't been meddling there for the last 70 years it would probably be a secular democracy now.
replyThey elect someone from a short list approved by the supreme leader...who will execute policy dictated to him by the supreme leader. Plus thousands of Iranians are executed yearly for crimes against the regime (make it tens of thousands in 2026). Calling Iran a democracy is a joke, it's a brutal dictatorship.
replyDid I call it a democracy?
replyAnyway, democracy is not a binary. You'd be unlikely to call ancient Athens a democracy by modern standards and yet...