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Tumult of Arab Spring Prompts Worries in Washington
(New York Times) Steven Lee Myers - The popular uprisings of the Arab Spring have presented the U.S. with challenges - and worst-case scenarios - that would have once been almost unimaginable. What if the Palestinians' quest for recognition of a state at the UN lands Israel in the International Criminal Court? Or if Egypt responds to anti-Israeli sentiments on the street and abrogates the Camp David peace treaty? What if Turkey, a NATO ally, sent warships to escort ships to Gaza in defiance of Israel's blockade, as Prime Minister Erdogan has threatened to do? The bold vow on Friday by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to seek full membership at the UN amounted to a public rebuff of weeks of feverish American diplomacy. "The region has come unglued," said Robert Malley, a senior analyst in Washington for the International Crisis Group. "And all the tools the United States has marshaled in the past are no longer as effective."