Controcorrente: Aria nuova in Medio Oriente
1) L'ha trovata Emma Bonino, dalla caduta di Saddam, ai segni della Conferenza di Sana'a.

2) «The most underreported and encouraging story in the Middle East in the past year has been the emergence in public of homegrown civic movements demanding political change. Two years ago they were nonexistent or in jail. Now they are out in the open even in the most politically backward places in the region: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. They are made up not only of intellectuals but of businessmen, women, students, teachers, and journalists. Unlike their governments--and the old school of U.S. and European Arabists--they don't believe that change should be gradual, and they reject the dictators' claim that democracy would only empower Islamic extremists. It is the delay of change, they say, that is increasingly dangerous.
These people weren't created by George W. Bush. They are the homegrown answer to a decadent political order, and they ride a powerful historical current. But they will tell you frankly: The new U.S. democratization policy, far from being an unwanted imposition, has given them a voice, an audience and at least a partial shield against repression--three things they didn't have one year ago».
Jackson Diehl, del liberal Washington Post

3) La guerra in Iraq? "Not A Diversion"
di Reuel Marc Gerecht, sul Weekly Standard

4) L'Egitto ci prova, tra riforme e conflitto israelo-palestinese
La nuova politica estera americana (la guerra in Iraq, ma anche la più recente Greater Middle East Initiative, che deve ancora sbarcare ufficialmente in Eurabia) ha scosso il mondo arabo e ridato voce ai tanti che dal suo interno reclamano riforme politiche e società aperte. Quale sarà l'atteggiamento dell'Europa nei confronti della nuova iniziativa di soft power Usa?
Per Emma Bonino il fallimento del vertice della Lega araba sulle riforme - che doveva rispondere alle anticipazioni del piano americano - non è poi un male, è «un esempio di vitalità».