Word: intifadas
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...Strip, where nearly 1.8 million Palestinian Arabs live. Because Israel has not annexed the territories (neither Israelis nor the Palestinians want that) Israeli law does not apply there. That means no democracy. That means no guarantees of fundamental Western freedoms. That means occasional human rights abuses, especially during the intifada, when rock-throwing Palestinians have often clashed with Israeli troops...
Israel, of course, has not followed the lead of her neighbors. But the bottom line is that Israel has handled the intifada--like all of the other issues it has faced--just as any other democratic nation would. Imperfectly. Looking bad sometimes is the price of freedom in Israel as well as in America...
...make excuses for Israel, whitewash its less-than-excellent handling of the intifada or apologize for its human rights abuses. The point is not to deny reality. The point, rather, is to understand Israel's situation in light of the neighborhood in which it lives and the constraints it faces, as a democracy, in dealing with them...
Furthermore, in attributing the Palestinian intifada to the actions of stone-throwing PLO "maniacs," Tarr denies the true popular character of the intifada and delegitimizes the Palestinian nationalist struggle. The demand for human equality and political sovereignty is not limited to an organization. It is, rather, the demand of a nation...
However, Israel's human rights record--while easily the most impressive in the wartorn region--is not perfect. Since the beginning of the intifada, it has been far from perfect...