- US President George W Bush's call for greater democracy
in the Middle East has drawn rebukes from some Arab commentators who accused
him of ignoring Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.
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- In a wide-ranging foreign policy speech in Washington
on Thursday, Bush said the US strategy of supporting non-democratic Arab
leaders over the past 60 years had been a failure and challenged Syria,
Iran and even key ally Egypt to adopt democracy.
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- "Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating
the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe, because
in the long run stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty,"
said Bush, speaking to the National Endowment for Democracy.
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- Khaled al-Maeena, editor-in-chief of the English language
Arab News daily in Saudi Arabia asked how Bush could call for greater freedoms
while ignoring Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.
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- Selective
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- "We in the Arab world believe that if freedom and
democracy come in the area, they should come to all, not a selective group,"
he said. "We also demand freedom and democracy for the Palestinian
people. Then (Bush's comments) would have credibility."
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- Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat reacted to Bush's
speech by urging the president to underscore his vision for democracy in
the Middle East by helping the Palestinians to hold free and fair presidential
and parliamentary elections.
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- "We've been trying to hold these elections for a
long time but have failed due to the Israeli occupation, and we hope President
Bush will help us in creating the right conditions for these elections
under his supervision and that of the international community," Erekat
said.
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- The Palestinian Authority backed out of a promise to
hold presidential and legislative elections last January, saying it was
impossible while Israeli troops were controlling Palestinian areas previously
under self rule.
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- Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Quraya pledged on Monday
to hold the polls next June, a step towards meeting long standing international
and domestic demand for reform.
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- Example
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- Ihsan Bu-Hulaiga, an economist and a member of Saudi
Arabia's consultative Shura Council, admonished Bush for trying to tell
Middle East countries how to run their affairs.
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- He said Bush would do better by making an example of
Iraq and handing control of the country from the US-led occupation administration
there to the Iraqi people.
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- "I would have really wanted to hear something regarding
what they were going to do in Iraq...giving Iraqis gradually more control
over their country," said Bu-Hulaiga, who sits on the Shura Council,
a body whose members are hand-picked by King Fahd and which has no legislative
powers.
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- In Egypt, Muhammad el-Sayed Said, deputy director of
the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, said Bush's call
for democracy in the Middle East was legitimate.
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- But he said Bush had drawn so much mistrust in the region
due to Arab perception of Washington's indiscriminate support for Israel
or the occupation of Iraq that his call could undermine real democrats
in the Middle East.
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- "Real, genuine democrats in the region, they just
simply don't trust Mr Bush. They think that the more that the United States
plugs this question of striving for democracy in the region, the more they
feel that this is damaging to their cause," he said.
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- © 2003 Aljazeera.Net
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- http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BFF619F0-79DA-4AC3-B362-BBE604459
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