JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's vice premier says many Mideast countries aren't ready for democracy.
After Islamists swept the first round of Egyptian elections, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said Monday: "We believe that you can’t reach democracy by elections. We believe in a long process. It should start by education."
He said Palestinians are not "mature" enough to build a civil society.
He noted Hamas militants who won 2006 democratic Palestinian elections threw rivals from a rooftop during their takeover of Gaza the following year.
Asked if Egypt was ready for democracy, Yaalon replied: "For Europe, it took hundreds of years, centuries, to bring about real democracy. In the Middle East, we are at the beginning of the first century of democratization."
