A headline on page A3 on Sunday (“Palestinians eye first democracy in Middle East”) is factually false and seriously misleads any reader who is not knowledgeable about the Middle East.

Israel has been the only true democracy in the Middle East since its founding in 1948. Even the Arab citizens of Israel, who are often treated as less than full citizens, exercise the democratic rights to speak their views openly and to vote, and are represented in the Knesset (parliament). Leaders of the United States have often cited Israel’s status as the only democracy in the Middle East as one of the things the two countries have in common, and an important reason for American support of Israel.

If the headline writer and his or her editor had only looked to the text of the first paragraph in the Associated Pres article (“… Palestinians…[seek] to build the first real democracy in the Arab world …) they would have gotten it right.

Anyone who wishes for peace in the Middle East, between Israel and her neighbors, wish the Palestinians well in their efforts to build the first democracy in the Arab world. Israel, as the oldest democracy in the region, would have a community of interest with a democratically elected Palestinian government, in serving the wishes of the vast majority of the people of both nations, to live in peace.

Rabbi Hillel Katzir, Temple Shalom Synagogue, Auburn

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