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jraby3 | 1 day ago

Aside from Israel are there any democracies in the Middle East?

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moxifly7|1 day ago

My observation was that more democracy in the Middle East is not what Israel or the US is interested in, given that the people's choice there would be overwhelmingly against Israeli and US interests.

They replaced the last democratic choice in Egypt with another military dictator, they keep the widely unpopular autocrat in Jordan on his throne with military and intelligence subsidies, have established and propped up a network of autocratic Gulf states that toe the line...

So yeah, I would not be surprised that Israel and the US would be more than happy to but a scion of the previous Iranian autocratic dynasty back on the throne there.

tlogan|1 day ago

Lebanon is democracy. It is true that system is sectarian (power-sharing among religious groups) but still a democracy.

padjo|1 day ago

Iran elects their President. Is it a shining example of a democracy, no, but it has a much stronger democratic tradition than say Saudi Arabia. If the US and British hadn't been meddling there for the last 70 years it would probably be a secular democracy now.

weatherlite|1 day ago

They elect someone from a short list approved by the supreme leader...who will execute policy dictated to him by the supreme leader. Plus thousands of Iranians are executed yearly for crimes against the regime (make it tens of thousands in 2026). Calling Iran a democracy is a joke, it's a brutal dictatorship.

frmersdog|1 day ago

Israel's a democracy the way the 3/5ths compromise promoted democracy.