Votes in the Middle East

Voters are headed to the polls in Jordan.

Tuesday’s elections for the 110 seats in the lower house are marked by rising expressions of cynicism from among the country’s 2.4 million voters, and from political analysts. Eighteen years after Jordan’s ruling family lifted martial law and restored parliament, King Abdullah II faces growing charges that the parliament in this Middle East monarchy is only superficially democratic.

Oh really. You think that might have something to do with the fact that the country is ruled by a monarch who came to the throne on the strength of hereditary?

Parliament has the power to introduce legislation. In practice, the government drafts most laws, and parliament only rarely intervenes to frustrate government plans. Abdullah appoints all 55 members of parliament’s upper house.

So the vote, then, is to elect a lower house that serves as a rubber stamp.
In Lebanon where the Parliament is set to choose a president, exercising the franchise could be hazardous to your health.

Lebanon does have a government of the people but the election of president hasn’t been easy. More than 40 members of Lebanon’s parliament have spent the past month in the gilded luxury of a five-star hotel in Beirut, trying to avoid assassination so they can elect the country’s next president.Access to their wing of the Intercontinental Phoenicia is sharply restricted, police keep watch from nearby rooftops, and the politicians are told to stay away from the hotel’s windows lest they draw a sniper’s bullet. The plush upholstery and buttery pastries do little to soothe the isolated legislators.

“I would rather, a million times over, enjoy the comfort of my house and family than be locked in a jail-like hotel,” said Wael Abou Faour, a newly married member of parliament who is anticipating the birth of his first child, a daughter, due in February.

Abou Faour and others want to escape the fate of Antoine Ghanem, a member of parliament killed in a car bombing Sept. 19, a day after returning to Lebanon from refuge abroad. He was the fourth member of the present parliament to be assassinated since the killing of former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri in 2005. All five politicians opposed what they saw as Syrian interference in Lebanese affairs, as have the targets of other recent acts of political violence.

For all the international uproar over Israel’s defensive “occupation” of southern Lebanon, there’s relatively little outrage over Syria’s continued domination of Lebanon, even after its occupation, officially ended a few years ago.

I guess it is interesting because in some ways, the Palestinians have more open elections than either Jordan or Lebanon. No doubt that’s because of the close contact with Israel. What democracy hasn’t done for the Palestinians is moderate their politics. No doubt part of it is the education system. The other part of it is the international encouragement of the Palestinian grievance. As long as the Palestinian grievance against (and hatred of) Israel is (are) encouraged to continue, the politics of Palestine will continue to be the politics of hatred.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.