“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” - Charles Dickens “A tale of two cities”
Revolts, crisis, fights, arms, wars, irony, agony, fear, persuasion and manipulation, all has hit and developed like a row of dominoes or like “a perfect storm” quoting the American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The wave of protests, which began in Tunisia on the 17th of December, continued to spread to other parts of the Middle East, with riots rocking Algeria and Libya soon after. Egypt was hit next with many responses in Jordan, Yemen and soon all over the region. This, according to analysts, was not a surprise. These countries share some fundamental characteristics such as poverty, severely aggravated by the economic crisis, and more or less brutal authoritarian regimes that have always monopolized the wealth.
President Mubarak has been in the past 30 years both a central figure in the Middle East and a key Western ally. As Egypt is one of the two countries in the region that signed peace treaties with Israel, Mubarak is known as the only Arab leader that Israelis have trusted. Their biggest fear is that without him, their cold - but so far resilient - peace with Egypt will be in danger. And now, after he stepped down not only Israelis are wondering what is going to happen next.
Middle East is changing … this is already common knowledge. But there are many questions behind it: How is Middle East changing? Which direction is heading towards? Will we witness an Islamic Egypt governed by the Muslim Brotherhood or things will take the path that Turkey took long ago? What is it going to happen in the other countries in the region, countries like Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen? What about the Israeli – Palestinian conflict?
Besides all this, in the past weeks we had the chance to witness the power of people, the power of will and, of course, the power of unity. And we had the real proof that masses are united by demands, not by leaders.
Therefore, I congratulate Egyptians for their achievement and I strongly believe they will continue to fight for their rights and for their freedom. They are now bracing themselves for all the changes that will follow in the next few months. Whether the changes they are calling for will happen, only time will tell.
I still reserve myself the right to tell that this was just the first step as the real fight is just at its start…
At the same time, I appreciate the work of the journalists who risked everything to show the reality to the outside world regardless how hard, dangerous, impossible it must have been. They definitely played an important role. It’s a shame that in the world of 2011, the freedom of speech is still banned; journalists are still taken into prison, injured and even killed.
But from now on, I believe only time can reveal the answers about today’s Middle East.
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