Thread by @sfrantzman

🧵 The criticism of the Abraham Accords talking point about “autocracy” or “dictators” is ridiculous. The Iran Deal was signed with a dictatorial regime…are we now to argue the US shouldn’t negotiate with Iran because it’s not signed with the average people?

https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/1487962407158824960

The ONLY situation in the Middle East or globally where a peace or normalization process is criticized is when it comes to Israel…with the misleading talking point that “dictators” or “autocrats” can’t make peace…

YET EVERY OTHER country in the world has relations with autocrats in the region…literally EVERY country has relations with the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Saudi, etc…and no one says “well you shouldn’t have relations, they are autocracies”….literally NO ONE argues this with Qatar

So it’s about Israel. Only Israel is slammed for making peace and having the bare minimum which is normalization with “autocracies”….but no one minds when Norway and Qatar have relations. No one minds Holland and Iran…no one minds every single other example

It’s entirely a scam when you hear that the issue with the Abraham Accords is that Israel made peace with “dictators”…literally every European country has relations with these same countries and no one says they shouldn’t. No one says any other country must only have democracy

There is not one example in the entire world where anyone suggests that only democracies will have exchange of ambassadors. ONLY when it comes to Israel do they trot out “but this is cynical and Israel now has relations with autocracies”…

The biggest lie talking point that came out after the Abraham Accords was to critique it based on “autocracy” when literally half the world is authoritarian regimes that all have normalization with eachother and with western democracies.

The fact is they the critics don’t mind other monarchies and autocracies snd dictators. They only mind them when it comes to finding some nee reason to complain about Israel having relations with countries

The talking point would have you believe Israel has to wait for the whole Middle East to become democracies to have normalization…but all rich western countries can happily consort with every non-democracy. Just not Israel…typical double standard

The theory that Israel has to make peace with “the people” is odd. Let’s take Iran as an example. The average people probably want peace with Israel but the regime prevents it. But note the talking point doesn’t suggest regime changes in Iran to let people make peace

Dictatorships that hate Israel, like the Assad regime, or Hezbollah, are always fine…any autocracy that gets along with Israel is condemned for it…that’s a double standard. Also when the West is busy building partnerships with plenty of non-democracies.

You can’t be only for democracy when it comes to countries having ties with Israel, but in no other example. Either you believe all relations have to be based on democracy, or none. Not just for Israel.

You can always test this by simply asking “so you think the US shouldn’t have ties with Qatar because it’s a dictatorship”….oh well no…it’s ok when it’s Qatar-US relations, just not UAE-Israel ties…it’s ok when it’s UAE-UK ties, just never Israel. That’s the story.

The “Israel shouldn’t make peace with dictator” argument flies in the face that every democracy has peace with non-democracies and no one minds. But sure, when every other democracy cuts relations with dictators, then maybe one can ask Israel about this.

Here is another example, screenshotted in his tweet, of this nonsense about how Israel as a democracy shouldn’t have relations with “autocracy”…ridiculous talking point that has no basis in how world affairs and engagement works.

https://twitter.com/hahussain/status/1487809636363350018

The scam is that in every other case we hear how democracies must “engage” even with regimes they don’t like…only with Israel we hear about how it’s weird a democracy has relations with autocracy…

Also another scam is that the people who claim Israel isn’t really a great democracy then make it out to be a light unto the nations or democracy when it dares to have relations with others…come on…the critics don’t even think Israel is such a great democracy anyway

The only issue here is they just don’t like to see Israel relations with others. They trot out the “democracy” talking point when necessary. Otherwise they slam Israel for being a flawed democracy anyway…