West Asia

Palestinian citizens of Israel must have been proud of the fact that their collective tenacity always proved stronger than any Israeli attempt at dislocating them from their rightful historical narrative.

A dear friend of mine from Gaza told me that he hadn’t slept for days. “I am so worried about Egypt, I have only been feeding on cigarettes and coffee.” My friend and I talked for hours that day in early February.

“There is basically no significant change in the fundamental traditional conception that if we can control Middle East energy resources, then we can control the world," says Noam Chomsky.

When the Libyan people took on their reviled dictator, Moammar Gadhafi, Israeli officials seemed puzzled by the alarming and unprecedented trend of popular awakenings in the Arab world.

Events in the Middle East over the last nine years, but especially in the last month give us an opportunity to examine how best to establish democracy. Analysis of what has recently taken place in Tunisia and Egypt can be measured against the ongoing tragedies of Iraq and Afghanistan.

While Washington undoubtedly had made contingency plans in preparation for the time when aging strongmen such as Hosni Mubarak stepped down, they had clearly not been prepared for the speed, force and direction of change.