Balancing Act

When I started drawing the Dry Bones cartoons, way back in January of 1973, the accepted wisdom was that the future for a democratic Middle East was tied to the fortunes of Christian Lebanon, the secular government of Muslim Turkey, and the Jewish State of Israel. We assumed that the three would eventually transform the entire area.

The accepted wisdom was wrong. We're down to one bright light of freedom and Western democracy in the entire region.

* * * The accepted wisdom now would be that the United States and the Western democracies would spring to support Israel, their last hope for a real democracy in the Middle East.

Once again, the accepted wisdom is wrong.