A lone protester outside my embassy raised an obvious question: How would replacing the Middle East’s only free country with yet another authoritarian Arab state advance the cause of freedom?

As I drove back to the embassy today, one man stood outside alone in the rain, holding a “Free Palestine” flag.

It takes real commitment to stand alone in the rain for hours with a flag. It also takes, in this case, a fair amount of ignorance.

“Free Palestine” is the ultimate oxymoron.

Israel is the only country in the Middle East rated “Free” by Freedom House. Arab citizens of Israel vote in free elections, form political parties, sit in parliament and serve on the bench, demonstrate against the government, and express their opinions openly.

Had the Jewish people vanished from the face of the Earth, and had they not recovered their national freedom in the twentieth century, no “free Palestine” would have emerged. The territory would almost certainly resemble most of its neighbours: another authoritarian and dysfunctional Arab state whose rulers export grievance and instability while their own people pay the price.

When people........

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