Ties with Israel and gay rights

The question of "warming" relations between Indonesia and Israel is an artificial one. There is no reason on earth why Indonesia should keep its distance from Israel when many Arab countries, including major ones like Egypt and also the Palestinians themselves, have already recognized Israel and established cooperation with the state. Indonesia should not be expected to be "more Catholic than the Pope", but should carefully calculate its own national interests.

There is another angle of looking at this whole question. Most, if not all, new democratic governments which try to improve their image in Western capitals resort to one or both of the following measures (of course, among many others):

* Improving relations with Israel

* Legalizing the status of homosexuals.

Both of the above are basically symbolic, they do not cost much and they both send a strong message of new openness and new freedoms. And Western countries are prone to mark these gestures positively.

A different question altogether is how well the local population accepts the new course. It takes time and patience, especially on individual level ("It's OK for the government to grant gay rights, but I'll be damned if I let that guy marry my son!").

I suggest that Westerners, before judging others, also perform this self-test to gauge how open-minded and liberal they really are: if they could help it, would they let their son marry that boy?

BRANIMIR SALEVIC

Tangerang, West Java