Bibi: democracies don’t shoot demonstrators

Lisa Goldman By Lisa Goldman January 5, 2011 | Edit

Last year, at the height of the Green Revolution in Iran, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave an interview in which he explained the difference between the way democracies act when faced by demonstrators agitating for their freedom, and the way in which non-democratic states act. In Iran, security agents were shooting and killing Reformist protesters.

“Democracies,” says Netanyahu, “Do not send in armed agents of the regime to brutally mow down demonstrators. I’ll tell you what I did: I called their leaders in! I talked to them! That’s what democratic countries do.” The prime minister goes on to explain that the actions of Iran’s security forces when faced with demonstrators has ‘unmasked the regime’ and ‘shown what it’s really about.’

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-73nf6dea8[/youtube]

Lisa Goldman

I'm an Israeli-Canadian journalist and blogger, currently based in New York City. Before that I lived in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, where I wrote for the Israeli and international media and maintained a blog, which I launched in 2004. My articles have been published in Haaretz, Time Out Tel Aviv, the New York Times, Forward, Jewish Quarterly, Columbia Journalism Review, Slate and the Guardian, amongst others.

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