By Abdallah El-Ashaal The Arab Spring, a term borrowed from the lexicon of East Europe, started with Tunisia and Egypt, but it has not achieved its full promise yet. Indeed, it is turning sour in Libya, Syria and Yemen. So far, this spring has not given us democracy, but only a glimmer of hope. We have rolled back the long winter of tyranny, but we're yet to sample the true fruits of freedom. Israel, meanwhile, is caught up in the middle of a fast-changing region. With Hosni Mubarak out of power, Israel is still mourning its staunchest ally. Having posed for long as the only democratic state in the region, Israel is far from comfortable with the sudden shift in the region's politics. But Israel was never a democracy, not in the classical sense anyway. Its democracy is selective at best, for the Arabs have never been treated as equal in the so-called "Jewish state". Now Israel is said to be having its own spring. Israelis are protesting against a government that is failing to give them what they want, and they are staging sit-ins to press their point. Doesn't this remind you of Egypt and Tunisia? But the similarity is far from complete. What the Israelis really want is more housing to be made available. For this to happen, more land will have to be grabbed from the Palestinians. The Israeli spring is not about freedom and justice. It is about oppressing another nation and denying its lawful rights. You know what Binyamin Netanyahu is going to do next? Most likely, he will ask for more assistance from other countries. He will also explain that grabbing Palestinian land is the only way to provide housing to his people. This is no spring; it's a long and painful winter. * This week's Soapbox speaker is former assisstant to the Egyptian foreign minister
