Middle east governments, without exception, oppress large swathes of their populations. Syria, a police state, is bombing and torturing its pro-democracy movement into submission. Saudi Arabia is a theocracy with a death sentence for blasphemy. Women cannot yet vote or stand for office. Iran --besides having an oppressive government that executes gays-- funds terror in other countries, is trying to export Sharia law and develop nuclear weapons.
In Libya, after decades of Gaddafi's misrule, rebels are now detaining and torturing people suspected of sympathising with the deposed dictator. Turkey, despite moves towards openness, still locks up outspoken journalists and abuses its Kurdish minority. There is not a hint of democracy in Yemen, Jordan and Bahrain. Human rights abuses are rife in Algeria and Morocco. The uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya are full of promise, but there is a long way to go before both democracy and human rights are realised.
Israel too follows these sad norms. It is using a siege to squeeze the economic life out of Palestinians living in Gaza. Palestinians living in the West Bank have no meaningful franchise and their movement is severely restricted. Political organising is crushed. Thousands of Palestinians languish in Israeli detention under an arcane military justice system.
The military regularly raids and destroys Palestinian homes and carries out extra-judicial executions in which bystanders are killed. Israeli settlers commit violence against Arabs daily and are slowly pushing them off their agricultural lands and confining them to overcrowded, poverty-stricken cities.
Inside Green-line Israel, Arabs are facing ever greater discrimination. The Knesset and Supreme Court sanction racist legislation like the Family Reunification Law which denies ciizenship to the Palestinian spouses of Arab Israeli citizens (but not Jewish ones) and essentially forces them to live in exile if they want to be together.
The claim that Israel is the only democracy in the middle-east is not sustainable. Israel is arguably less democratic than Turkey and no more so than Algeria and Morocco. One could discuss endlessly about which of the world's countries are the worst human rights abusers. While not among the very worst, Israel does compete; under its current extremist government it is also becoming more oppressive.