Doubting Thomas

Thomas silences his voice

For three years running, Thomas has been promoting the Arab Human Development Report. So I was not surprised that since the AHDR is currently in the news, that would be the subject of his column today, "Arabs lift their voices". I was not disappointed. He has seen the report and, of course, gives it high marks. I won't critique the whole column, but there's something that really sticks out here.
The column starts:

Until the recent elections in Iraq and among the Palestinians, the modern Arab world was largely immune to the winds of democracy that have blown everywhere else in the world. Why? That's a pretty important question. For years, though, it was avoided in both the East and the West.

and ends:

But the important thing about this report is that political reform is now being put on the Arab agenda by Arabs. Yes, it's scathing about the Western and Israeli roles in retarding Arab democratization, but it's equally scathing about what Arabs have done to themselves and how they must change - people don't change when you tell them they should, but when they tell themselves they must. Read this report and you'll also understand why part of every Arab hates the U.S. invasion of Iraq - and why another part is praying that it succeeds.

I suppose that last sentence redeems the column, slightly. But there's a disconnect between praising the rise of democracy in Iraq and the disputed territories and then airing the grievance against Israel and the United States with no comment. Could the "occupations" that the report decries be the reason for the increased democracy in those two areas? And is there any reason for Friedman to say that it's OK as long as they criticize Arab regimes too? Yes, Thomas should have been a lot sterner when it came to criticizing the report.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Doubting Thomas.

Posted by SoccerDad at April 7, 2005 06:43 AM | TrackBack