Viva la revolucion!

Like everyone else I know, I'm more than a little nervous as to what comes next in Egypt...

But only an utterly heartless person can see the joy of the people throwing off an autocrat and not be extremely proud. Proud not to be an American -- proud to be a human being. Today is a great day. We should all salute the Egyptians who helped make this happen.

Someone I know said, "You don't really think it's going to be a democracy, do you?"

Sadly, no I do not. The sneaking suspicion I have (which is due in part to my there's-no-such-thing-as-good-news Jewish nature) is that the Muslim Brotherhood will step in to fill the power void. Which could tilt Egypt towards two things that I really don't want to see: Sharia law and war with Israel.

But that chapter has not been written yet. I refuse to not honor the Egyptians for doing what was long overdue: Casting off tyranny.

Moreover, not only did the Egyptians rightly refuse to compromise (Mubarak had to step down. Every other ship had sailed.) But they got what they want with such admirable restraint. This revolution has been largely bloodless -- and I'm slightly stunned by this.

In a region where for the last decade or so, Palestinian suicide bombers have been egged on to do their horrific work, well, this is different. This is a change. Dare I say, a big one. And I very much hope the Palestinians are paying close attention to what happened in Cairo for the last 18 days.

We'll all see what happens tomorrow. I'm nervous. But excited, too. Viva!

Screw you, I'd rather die

A heartbreaking story in the Times today (which really should have been a page one story) about how the Palestinian Authority has basically ordered Palestinians to stop going to Israeli hospitals.

Like the conflict itself, it's one of those things where you can sort of see both sides of things.

On the Palestinian side:

Their government is bankrupt and they're pouring money into what is essentially their enemy's coffers. And one of the Palestinian doctors pointed out (with some merit) that it creates a culture of dependency. (I don't agree with this interpretation, but it has its points.)

On the Israeli side:

It's not as though Israel is making a profit on this. They're treating Palestinians for the same cost that they're treating Israelis. (At a much lower cost than it would be to treat them, say, in the U.S.) And the fact is, dependency or not, Israel has much better medical care than you can get in the West Bank or Gaza. People will die without access to their technology and expertise.

Sigh.