Epstein Secrets

ect, which represents only 6 percent of Syria's population, would quickly lose power in a more democratic system. Most likely the dictator, like Mr. Mubarak before him, is seeking to deflect the demands for change with a mixture of violence and false promises. If that proves to be the case, the Obama adm

peech the public has been expecting. He is said to have waited because he didn't want to be caught in the same cycle as Egypt's desposed president, Hosni Mubarak, who made a series of speeches announcing modest concessions, each of which only fueled the demand for more. Assad appears to be holding his cards

ria less than two month ago. Assad has deliberately avoided making any public pronouncements so far, leaving those mostly to his pro-reform adviser Bouthaina Shaaban. She said last week that Assad would repeal Syria's emergency law, end the Baath Party's monopoly on power, reform the judiciary and combat the corr

nows what it takes to make his people happy. Unlike in Egypt and Tunisia, Syrians see Assad as part of the solution in their country, and not, like Hosni Mubarak and Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali, as part of the problem. He is young, closer to their age than both presidents had been to young Egyptians and Tunisian

ago, in a long, thrilling interview with the Wall Street Journal, Assad spoke about the stability of his regime, in sharp contrast to the crumbling Mubarak regime. But in the end, the shockwaves of the "Arab Spring" also reached Syria. The opposition is nourished by the hatred the Sunni majority in Syr

y in particular, as ordinary Syrians celebrated what seemed to be the end of a crisis that had gripped the nation for a week. Presidential adviser Bouthaina Shaaban gave a press conference at 6 pm on Thursday evening, in response to violent demonstrations in the southern town of Daraa near the border with Jorda

by such scenes were the limits of the day's slogan: "The people want the end of the division!" While Egyptians and Tunisians had by then jettisoned Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party and Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali's Rally for Constitutional Democracy, the March 15 movement was in effect asking Palestini

impossible choice, recapitulated starkly by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after May 2: "It's either Hamas, or peace with Israel." With Mubarak's Egypt shoring up a still-biting Gaza blockade, meanwhile, and taking Fatah's side as the final arbitrator of reconciliation with Hamas, Abbas cou

member. A timeline of opposition in Syria bulges with religious contention and brutal repression, but not with female heroes. The government uses Bouthaina Shaaban, a British- educated scholar of Arab women and literature, to reach out to old oppositionists while young ones are disinclined to talk. Who will pr

ould, in the absence of a host, relocate to the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian Youth Movement, which played an instrumental role in dismantling President Mubarak's regime, is splintering. The movement was an amalgamation of various political stripes, united only by mutual contempt for Mubarak's regime. Key m

ters' demands would betray weakness on the part of the regime and only elicit more demands. Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa and presidential adviser Bouthaina Shaaban—who initially divulged to the public the President's intention to undertake serious reforms—have fallen silent. Last week, armed units were deploye