Arab World since the Feb 11 Departure of Mubarak

Good stuff about the Arab Spring:

• The Guardian 5/21/11, Ahdaf Soueif, "Our Revolt is not Obama's: Barack Obama says he wants change in the Arab world yet insults us with the same old bad policies". A short piece, yet surpassingly powerful, about Obama's subversion of the Arab world's quest for economic opportunity even as he professes support for it. U.S. It has wonderful paragraphs like this one:   

The blame is not all with America. We had a regime that was susceptible, that became actively complicit; assiduously finding ways to serve US and Israeli interests – and ruin us. But: we got rid of it. Peaceably, with grace and within the law. We Got Rid of It.

Ahdaf Soueif (pictured right) is an Egyptian short story writer, novelist and political and cultural commentator. More Soueif pieces at the Guardian.

• New York Times 2/17/11 Egyptians Say Military Discourages an Open Economy
• Bloomberg BusinessWeek: transcript of the Feb 17 Charlie Rose Talks to Shady El Ghazaly Harb
• Video of the Feb 17 Charlie Rose interview with El Ghazaly Harb
• Terrific and frequently updated Wikipedia page on the 2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests.
• Look for and listen to superb information about the Arab Awakening on Worldview, hosted by Jerome McDonnell on Chicago Public Radio. This foreign affairs program for my money is the best foreign affairs program anywhere, in any medium. Here are links to a few recent Worldview interviews on the Arab World, spiced with a few articles, with attribution, from other solid sources:
• Algeria
• Egypt
• Iran
• Israel
• Libya 
• Libya "Libya in the Balance', Nicolas Pelham, Middle East Report, 3/15/2011.
• Morocco Links to articles on Morocco at MIddle East Report
• Oman
• Palestine
• Sudan
• Syria "Is Syria the Next Domino?" Ribal Al-Assad, Director of the Organization for Democracy and Freedom in Syria. (Project Syndicate)
• Tunesia
• Yemen Links to articles on Yemen at MIddle East Report

Here is some background material on the changing situation in the Middle East (I completely overlook Libya; haven't had time to select good links):

• Dr. Avigdor Haselkorn 2/21, The Middle East's False Dawn of Democracy
• New York Times 2/21, U.S. Blocks Security Censure of Israeli Settlements  
• Robert Fisk in The independent, 3/5/11,  The Tunisian whose jihad was for the people, not God
• The Independent 3/7/11 Saudis Mobilise Thousands of Troops to Quell Growing Revolt
• 3/11 Foreign Affairs Links to "Articles on the Middle East Crisis".
• Nouriel Roubini, The Economic Consequences of of the Arab Revolt," Project Syndicate, 3/14/11
• Thoimas Friedman, "Hoping for Arab Mandelas", New York Times, 3/27/11

And here some stories about the impact of Egypt on the USA

• Matt Stoller in "The Liquidation of Society Versus the Global Labor Revival" (posted at Naked Capitalism) sees the Arab world protests as doing what labor strikes used to do in the U.S. - and as inspiring (state employees at least) in Madison, WI and Providence, RI. He uses this striking Doug Henwood graph to account for why U.S. wages have kept "getting cut" since 1947: 

More to come!