Epstein Secrets

by Jordan's King Abdullah in 2004, during the Iraq war, to describe an arc of influence from Shiite-dominated Iran to its allies in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Today, these rival crescents risk turning countries in transition into battlefields over the region's future. The Salafis represent a painful long

he entire Middle East. "We have far more freedoms," one peddler hawking fruit in the same square lamented, "but far fewer jobs." Another noted that Mohamed Bouazizi, the vendor who set himself on fire, did so not to vote in a democratic election but because harassment by local officials had cost him his livelih

g and murder of a luminary of the Shiite religious class, Imam Musa al- Sadr, and two of his companions. In the summer of 1978, Sadr, the leader of Lebanon's Shiites, and two companions went to Libya to take part in a celebration of Gadhafi's military revolution. The charismatic cleric, who had all but

burg rulers, led to the division between Belgium and Holland. In the case of the Arab awakening of 2011, 46-year-old policewoman Fedia Hamdi struck Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian stallholder in a market, and in protest he burned himself alive (in the subsequent investigation it appeared that in fact Hamdi had not

politics also plays a role. The two sides have assembled loosely allied camps. [ran holds in its sway Syria and the militant Arab groups Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories; in the Saudi sphere are the Sunni Muslim-led Gulf monarchies, Egypt, Morocco and the other main Palestinian

ered by the self- immolation of an overeducated 26-year-old Tunisian vegetable seller whose cart was repeatedly confiscated by the authorities. After Mohamed Bouazizi was slapped by a policewoman when he tried to complain, he reached the end of his tether. Bouazizi’s public suicide turned into a social movement bec

he fall of Syria would leave Hezbollah - which is highly dependent on the current Syrian regime and is in large part an extension of Syrian policy in Lebanon - wholly dependent on Iran. And Iran without its Syrian ally is very far away from Hezbollah. Like Tehran, Hezbollah thus also wants al Assad to surv

a sizeable advantage. This is not naïve or farfetched. After all, it was the plight of Tunisian vendor HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_031929 --- PAGE BREAK --- 18 Mohamed Bouazizi and the symbolism of his fate that sparked all the revolutions across the Middle East. The images of the rebels in Libya liberating their country (as