Harriet Sherwood false "Arab Spring" political parallel update

As we’ve noted before, connecting the political dots is not one of Harriet Sherwood’s greatest strengths.

Indeed, Sherwood’s latest unintentionally comical effort to draw some sort of political parallel between protests in Israel over the high cost of rent and the Arab revolts against repressive regimes in the region (Government alarm at citizens revolt as tent protests spread) – referring to the Israeli “tent movement” as “yet another example of this year’s ripples of revolt across the region” – is best embodied in the following passage:

“Inevitably connections have been made between the Arab Spring and this Israeli Summer. There are of course important differences“:

Hmm…what modest differences could she be referring to?

the [Israeli] protesters are mostly middle-class; the focus is on the cost of living rather than fundamental rights of freedom and democracy. [emphasis mine]

Important differences? Yeah, you think?!

Because, really, other than such pesky minor details – the difference between citizens of a democracy exercising their rights in a free society to protest high living costs (protests indicative of a thriving economy and a hot real estate market) and the revolts against tyrannical Arab regimes (“resistance” against totalitarian regimes which deny both basic human rights and decent standards of living) – drawing political parallels between the two are otherwise simply “inevitable”.