I’m currently working abroad in Nuremberg, Germany.  As I was walking around I stumpled upon a Anti-Israel rally.  Plenty of police were around to make sure the the protest was peaceful.  As I watched the protest it dawned on me that, regardless of what you think of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the bottom line is that democracy works.  Had a minority of Christians or Jews protested in a heavily Muslim country, there would have been violence.  But yet here are a bunch of Turks and Algerians protesting Israel in a Christian Democracy.  Why are there so many Turks in Germany?  Because for the most part Turkey does not provide much opportunity for jobs.  So the Turks come to Germany for jobs.  Again, because Germany’s years of Democracy and innovativeness has provided an opportunity to a foreign minority.

Israel remains one of the only Democracies in the Middle East.  Many Arabs and Middle Eastern countries are repressed by their government….Iran…Syria to name a few.

Watching the protest made me very angry.  Knowing that had I been in many parts of the Arab world, I would not have been able to protest and feel safe.  And yet these people have the freedom to do this in a Western Democracy.  How fair is that?  And they are protesting against a goverment that stands for the very freedoms that allow them to protest.