Imagine if the United States, in its war against Hitler, had said to Stalin: we don't want your support until you make your country democratic.

If you have to fight an enemy at a critical point in time, and you have an ally who happens to be a dictator, you don't say: Let's stop fighting right now, because you're not a democrat. That would be ridiculous.

Bush explained his fundamental concept to me, that freedom is not an American invention, but rather a gift from God to all people.

It is not surprising, then, that in the decade since Oslo began, Arafat used all the resources placed at his disposal to fan the flames of hatred against Israel.

On the other hand, if the free world is concerned with how a new Palestinian leader governs, then the peace process will have a real chance to succeed.

Imagine if the United States, in its war against Hitler, had said to Stalin: we don't want your support until you make your country democratic.

This scepticism is the same scepticism I heard a generation ago in the USSR when few thought that a democratic transformation behind the iron curtain was possible.