Elephantstrunk

In an abstract sense I believe the very best resoulution of the toils of the West Bank and Gaza is a one state solution. Give all of those in the occupied territories a vote and see what happens.

On the other hand I have also believed that efforts to promote democracy in Iraq were based on a flawed and superficial notion of democracy. In particular voting, even if secret and universal, is not the same thing as democracy nor even the most important feature.

Extemporising, democracy is a condition that requires a consensus and voting is a means for allowing that consensus to shift gracefully. Expectations that deposing Saddam would rapidly produce a functioning democracy implicitly assumed that such a consensus would spring up as soon as Saddam was gone. That seemed unlikely.

Both claims are I think true but be careless about what is meant and they argue opposite things. Indeed that is I think what happened. There is no official support for a one state solution the way there is for Iraq and there is no acknowlegement of profound disagreements within Iraq.