The spirit of the Arab spring is as important as ever,
and it has informed responses to the violence in the Middle East this
week
If we are learning anything from the latest round of woefully predictable
slaughter it is how a festering problem got worse, not better, during the Arab
spring......
....how Palestinians first introduced the notion of Arabs rising up against their
oppressors. The Arabic term "intifada" means "shaking off" or "uprising" and
first entered popular usage during the 1987 Palestinian rebellion against
Israel. It was as easily applicable to the Arab spring as it is to those living
in Gaza.
There are now signs of
change, however. Political leaders who replaced US-backed despots after the Arab
spring are openly supporting Hamas.....
It was also in 2008 that
Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni actually declared war on Gaza
from Cairo – a ruthlessly pragmatic gesture which infuriated the majority of
Egyptians. Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's new president, in
contrast, frantically stepped up diplomatic efforts to resolve the Gaza
crisis.
Terms of the ceasefire were necessarily restrictive and it is, of course, a
fragile truce. The crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip by Israel remains, for
example, and there are ongoing humanitarian concerns for the near 2 million
Palestinians living there....."
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