Many commentators (including me) have noted conservative support for Arab/Islamic dictatorships in the Middle East. But this is no less true of the left who have readily defended tyranny in Iran and other places while condemning Israel, which is a democratic state. Here is an essay on this by Alan Dershowitz.
I find it intriguing that ideologues (whether conservative or liberal) are much more likely than non-ideologues to shelve their supposed principles when an article of their ideology is under threat. Here the left shelves democracy in order to affirm underdog Arab/Muslim societies and to condemn bully Israel. Some on the right do the same by supporting dictatorships in Egypt and Saudi Arabia (for example), claiming that stability trumps democracy–except when the US invaded Iraq.
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