Epstein Secrets

, others unfurl militant, anti-Israel rhetoric to chanting supporters. Corruption and patronage Ideology aside, the Hamas that won control of this Mediterranean strip, isolated by an economic siege and hobbled by 30 percent unemployment, no longer looks the same to many Gazans. It secured once-lawless stree

depended to help protect its interests. They were constant, if not always agreeable, companions. Egypt's Mubarak, Jordan's King Hussein, Tunisia's Ben Ali, Yemen's Ali Saleh, Morocco's King Hassan II, Saudi Arabia's kings Fand and Abdullah. The PLO's Yasir Arafat rounded out the group photo. America'

Thce_r o n pos, 27 February, 2010 Article 1. Washington Post Arab democracy and the return of the Mediterranean world Robert D. Kaplan Article 2. Los Angeles Times Winds of change in the Middle East Kenneth M. Pollack Article 3. Article 4. NYT How the

there was now the cult of the rulers, the unbounded power of Saddam Hussein and Muammar el-Qaddafi and Hafez al-Assad in Syria and Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia. The traditional restraints on power had been swept away, and no new social contract between ruler and ruled had emerged. Fear was now

ighters had watched for an attempt by his armed loyalists to flee and seek safety elsewhere. Soon after dawn, they did, leaving urban bunkers in the Mediterranean town and heading west, said a senior Western official in Europe knowledgeable about NATO's operations in Libya. Around 8:3o a.m. local time, a conv

otably President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen and President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. One of them, also referring to former President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia and former President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, read: "Ben Ali escaped, Mubarak is in jail, Qaddafi was killed. Which fate do you prefer, A

. Article 2. Article 3. Article 4. Article 5. Article 6. The von pos, 27 February, 2010 Washington Post Arab democracy and the return of the Mediterranean world Robert D. Kaplan Los Angeles Times Winds of change in the Middle East Kenneth M. Pollack NYT How the Arabs Turned Shame Into Liberty Fo

there was now the cult of the rulers, the unbounded power of Saddam Hussein and Muammar el-Qaddafi and Hafez al-Assad in Syria and Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia. The traditional restraints on power had been swept away, and no new social contract between ruler and ruled had emerged. Fear was now

nder of the defeat of jihadi ideology in an Arab world being transformed by people power. Another variable has been the response: French support for Ben Ali was embarrassing; the US was praising Mubarak days before he departed. Muammar Gaddafi had no friends - and the Arab League was crucial in providing

especially if initial U.S. strikes seemed devastating to the point of decisive. But their involvement would spread the conflict to the entire eastern Mediterranean and perhaps beyond, complicating both U.S. military operations and coalition diplomacy. It seems fairly clear then that a conflict with Iran is unli

demonstrations sparked by the self-immolation of a twenty-six-year-old man who had been reduced to scratching out a living as a humble street vendor. Ben Ali, along with his hated wife and family, chose to go into exile before a single shot had been fired. In Egypt, if press reports are to be believed, the

which large numbers of people are permitted to assemble-have spread from Deraa to at least a dozen other cities including Baniyas and Latakia on the Mediterranean coast, as well as to the northern city of Homs and some suburbs of Damascus. * With the Alawi-dominated regime under threat, the HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_0300

gether. To be sure, Egypt's Mubarak and Tunisia's Ben Ali neither ran police states on the terrifying scale

relative to the cause of political expression. But it was Rome's ability to provide a modicum of stability to parts of central Europe and the entire Mediterranean basin— and thus further the cause of personal freedoms (mind you, by the dismal standards of the era)— that is key to its achievement; and HOUSE_OVER