Thread: The Arab revolution, country by country

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Hang on, the tangent was about stable countries in the region with Israel claimed to be the only one.

Jordan has not had the instability seen in Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen or Lybia etc. And like Israel, Jordan has had various demonstrations but not for regime change only on domestic issues so the issue, whether separate or not, is irrelevant. Both Jordan and Israel (and several other countries in the area) should be considered stable. More than that Israel is not the shining example of democracy some claim.

depends how you want to define it.

i dont mind either way.

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Hang on, the tangent was about stable countries in the region with Israel claimed to be the only one.

Jordan has not had the instability seen in Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen or Lybia etc. And like Israel, Jordan has had various demonstrations but not for regime change only on domestic issues so the issue, whether separate or not, is irrelevant. Both Jordan and Israel (and several other countries in the area) should be considered stable. More than that Israel is not the shining example of democracy some claim.

Jordan, Saudi-Arabia, and the Emirates are absolute monarchies which make them dictatorships in my opinion. The Hashemi royal family of Jordan were beaten in Arabia by the Saud tribe hence Saudi-Arabia. The mealy mouthed perfidious poms thus had an unemployed ruling family on their hands and found them Jordan to rule as allies of the poms. The opinion of the Jordanian people was not sought. The Palestinian refugees tried to unseat the king but his army stayed loyal, hence the Black September movement. Turkey's current government is an Islamic party who would dearly love to turn back the clock a few centuries. Iraq is a shambles. Iran has a despotic theocracy. Bashar al Assad recognised and protected his Christian minority. At least a million of these have fled the Islamist rebel held areas where they are persecuted to Lebanon which really doesn't need any more refugees or trouble than it already has with Hezbollah.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Jordan, Saudi-Arabia, and the Emirates are absolute monarchies which make them dictatorships in my opinion.
.

actually Jordan is a Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy.
the same as new zealand, the UK, japan and similar to australia (i wish australia was as a start)

For info, Lebanon is the only republic in the region and is a parliamentary democracy.

Lebanon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Imagine the problems in this region when the oil runs out, & they have no income from it, Bob

Originally Posted by bob10

Imagine the problems in this region when the oil runs out, & they have no income from it, Bob

By then, the rich that have exploited all the natural resources will be living in Monaco and the population in the Middle East will be in poverty

I vividly remember an Al Jazeera interview with a Syrian rebel fighter who proudly boasted that when they overthrow Assad that they will kill all the Shias, then the Christians, then march on Israel.

I suspect those espousing the rebel cause are looking through rose coloured glasses and a change of government may do little to improve things. The base motivation of the Syrian rebel cause is religious, not a desire for democracy.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Jordan, Saudi-Arabia, and the Emirates are absolute monarchies which make them dictatorships in my opinion.

Who says an absolute monarchy can't be stable?

Have we never heard of the benevolent dictator.

In many respects representative democracies aren't the panacea for discontent they protray themselves to be. They don't automatically prevent disquiet nor revolution.