Sunday, February 13, 2011

Kristof: It's morning in Arabia

He begins: "It’s a new day in the Arab world — and, let’s hope, in American relations to the Arab world." A later paragraph:
Too many Americans bought into a lazy stereotype that Arab countries were inhospitable for democracy, or that the beneficiaries of popular rule would be extremists like Osama bin Laden. Tunisians and Egyptians have shattered that stereotype, and the biggest loser will be Al Qaeda. We don’t know what lies ahead for Egypt — and there is a considerable risk that those in power will attempt to preserve Mubarakism without Mr. Mubarak — but already Egyptians have demonstrated the power of nonviolence in a way that undermines the entire extremist narrative. It will be fascinating to see whether more Palestinians embrace mass nonviolent protests in the West Bank as a strategy to confront illegal Israeli settlements and land grabs.
Mr. Kristof seems to be a few players short of a full score-card. How will the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas (not mentioned in the article) fare on this "new day"? I guess one doesn't ask those sorts of questions in Kristof-land.

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