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The Arab Spring: A Cause for Hope?

(Wall Street Journal) Gerard Baker - As thousands braved the brutal crackdown by members of President Bashar Assad's military that has killed hundreds of unarmed protestors, in the Syrian city of Homs last week a small group of Arab demonstrators boldly held up a sign that read, in Arabic: "We urge our heroic armed forces to use rubber bullets, just as the Israelis do." Think for a moment what the sign represented. Here was the Arab Street calling not for the destruction of Israel but for Arab rulers to behave more like Israelis. For much of their modern history Arab leaders have blamed the Israelis - and their backers in the West - for most of their ills. For seven centuries the Arabs have laid the blame for their failures at the feet of others: Crusaders, Ottomans, Persians, British and French colonialists, Americans, Jews. The Arab Spring has shattered this organizing mythology of Arab dysfunction. "For the first time in 700 years, it is not some outsider who is to blame," says a senior Western diplomat in the region.
2011-05-20 00:00:00
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