The American people inherited the notion that "political" democracy resides in the decisions made by majority vote.  That means, if you had all the potential and participating voters free to mark their ballots in free and fair elections, if one more than 50% of those voting for one side or the other, the winning side would win by just 50% plus one of those voting.  This is not a universal belief or practice.

I think that the Israeli government is a patchwork of minority parties that consolidate only after promises are made by a major party that they work on the democratic principle described above.  They hold votes and the majority rules.  Cranky small parties sometimes hold the rest of the parties' hostage for their votes.  It is not an ideal democracy but it IS a democracy.  This democracy would like to live in peace with its neighbors. Peace benefits all. Unfortunately, the people who share the "Holy Land" in an unholy stand off, prevent nationhood from being established in the West Bank. It is there that Jewish settlements are imposed on the non-Jews (who are the majority living there) with a weak self government.  Gaza, which was invaded by Israel to force the Hamas run government to stop its aggression against Israel through daily rockets, is in ruins and we know it is reinforced by aid from Iran and Syria. The Israelis removed all the Israeli settlements but Gaza is in ruins ruled by a group demanding death to Israel.

So, the resultant picture is, there is democracy in Israel that feels free to invade its other cohabitants of the land to make the aggressors in Gaza stop bombing Israeli towns. This does not impose democracy in that strip of coastal Mediterranean land. Most of the world believes that Hamas is a terrorist group and, because they inject terror into neighboring Israel, prevents "Palestine" from becoming one country although in two parts.  The Two Nation solution is crippled by being in three parts.

We believe in democracy here although it took the Supreme Court to impose a settlement of a disputed election eight years ago - and not to everyone's satisfaction. The question remains from that day to this: is democracy employed or mangled in the process?  Then we move over to the nations surrounding the State of Israel and the non-state of "Palestine".  It is my belief from the reading of the news from that part of the world that there will have to UNANIMITY- not a majority - conclusion by the Muslim partners to negotiations leading to acceptance of Israel as an equal nation in the Middle East.  Democracy as we know it and accept is not part of what is proposed by the Muslim countries as a single unit which makes demands on Israel to accept shrinking their land in order to be recognized.  A majority of 50% plus one is hard enough to deal with.  Where is democracy here?