Sharon Calls Mahmoud Abbas

[Hepcat]

Langeweile!

I believe (and I am not finished yet) that total personal freedom will result in anarchy.

And that's a bad thing?

 

[PayPal]

Unfortunately, the US and Israel are unable to dictate the will of the palestinian people.
On the contrary, Abbas will be representing the will of the palestinian people, which clearly includes Hamas.

For those of you, who can read, George Jonas wrote an informative piece in the National Post yesterday, titled: "A Palestinian leader can't be moderate."

The Palestinians just became the first Arabs to have a democratic election. Good for them, that's something to be proud of.

Hamas clearly doesn't represent the will of the Palestinian people as they withdrew from the election after opinion polls gave them less than 15% support. Iran it seems cannot intimidate everybody.

Now is the time for the majority of the Israeli & Palestinian people to move forward and leave the extremists on both sides to rot.

Having just come back from two weeks in Israel you can see that the majority on both sides are sick of the so called "religious" nuts controlling the agenda.

 

[Peeping Tom]

Part of your confusion draws from definitions. The United States is not a pure democracy - it is a constitutional Republic which incorporated limited democratic principles.

I believe (and I am not finished yet) that total personal freedom will result in anarchy. There is a need for people to establish rules in order to function as a society. Some of those rules will be in conflict with personal freedom.

The trick is, like someone else said before, to have a clear division from church and state. So religous fanatism does not intrude on personal freedom.

Can one exist without the other? Yes. Does it still qualify as a democracy? I am not sure. I think it depends on your definition of the word democracy. If it is simply a form of goverment where decisions are made by a freely voting society. I would say yes.
Somewhere in there has to be room for personal freedom and the protection of those freedoms.
Part of the dynamics of a democracy is, that it is never perfect. It needs to be worked on, compromises need to be made and it is ever diffcult.