The Definition of Democracy

Check out this exchange, note skialethia's first sentence:

Now, we can all laugh at skialethia's stupidity, but I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about what it means for a country to be a democracy on the Huffington Post.

Very frequently, we hear AZs definitively declare that Israel is not a democracy. The reasons are varied, some of them are Israel is occupying territory, Israel is stealing land, Israel doesn't give the Palestinians the vote, there is discrimination in Israel, etc. Despite the fact that Israel routinely has elections, multiple parties, a free press, and a pretty decent representation of minorities in the government, the AZ standards for democracy are so high that Israel doesn't quite make it. Well, that's OK, we all know the AZs live in an idealized world where soldiers are responsible for every civilian death and everything Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says is the truth. I guess they're pretty demanding when it comes to which country constitutes a democracy.

But then, of course, we get a post like skialethia's, and believe me, that post is not alone. Apparently, the Palestinians live under a democracy, where Hamas won the election fair and square, and therefore are in power under democratic means. The AZs will either ignore or forget the fact that the Gaza election was supposed to be for a parliamentary government, like Israel's, where Hamas has to form a coalition government with the numerous other parties that also won seats in the election. The fact that Hamas used violence to force all of Fatah's party members out of Gaza is left out of the AZ rhetoric declaring the Palestinians to be living in a vibrant democracy.

So what can we conclude from this? As we all know by now, the AZs' do not actually have independent standards of their own, they are willing to use whatever standards they need to promote the Palestinian cause and attack the Israeli cause. Israel has some discrimination and racism? That's it, no longer a democracy (if it ever was)! Hamas eliminated all its rivals using violence and rooftop drops? The Gazans had an election, so that's good enough! One set of standards for Israel, one set for the Palestinians.