On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, They cast up against me their ways of destruction.

On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, They cast up against me their ways of destruction.

Following the sham elections in early December, massive protests erupted in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. And those marching were not the usual impoverished rabble rousers, but Russia s new middle classes.

And We said to the Children of Israel after him, 'Dwell in the land and when the promise of the world to come comes to pass, We shall bring you a rabble.'

And We said to the Children of Israel after him, 'Dwell in the land and when the promise of the world to come comes to pass, We shall bring you a rabble.'

Populist rabble rousers like to stir up such resentments by ranting about foreigners who work for a pittance or not at all. But it is the relative success of ethnic minorities and immigrants that is more upsetting to indigenous populations.

So Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately demanded an official apology from the Dutch government for ignoring Borodin s diplomatic immunity. The rabble rousing Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky called on his followers to smash the windows of the Dutch embassy in Moscow.

Even the tiny state of Qatar has the rabble rouser Al Jazeera television channel, which is watched by more viewers in Saudi Arabia than in any other Arab country. Messages by their dissident compatriot Osama Bin Laden are periodically beamed from that channel, inciting Saudis against the royal family.

For most Israelis, even those who voted for him as the bearer of Sharon s legacy after the Gaza disengagement, Olmert thus remained the accidental prime minister. Likewise, Peretz, a rabble rousing but effective trade unionist, surprised all when he won the Labor Party s leadership primary and then chose the defense portfolio over the treasury.

Obviously, many of its members and leaders do subscribe to these tenets, and disapprove in private of López Obrador s rabble rousing antics. But, as long they remain relatively powerless, Mexico will remain unbalanced, deprived of the modern left that it needs to combat poverty and inequality, and hostage to those who still believe in revolution and the assault on the Winter Palace.