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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (50)	10/25/2001 11:15:27 PM
From: Scoobah	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

The British are still sore that Menachem Begin and the Irgun whipped their ass.

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (50)	10/26/2001 1:07:37 AM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 32591

If there's anything Arafat is good at, it's personal survival. I don't think he'll be assassinated. Besides, he's too useful a figurehead. Now for something completely different...a small piece of good news from the Arab world. Did you hear the Crown Prince of Bahrain on Larry King Live? He sounded like an American entrepreneur. His father is trying something different in Bahrain, liberalism and democracy. There was an article on Bahrain in today's WSJ, which spoke of how Bahrain is moderating its Islamic groups by moving towards democracy and toleration of criticism. Of course, this might not work as well everywhere; Bahrain is special due to its status as fun city for Saudis. I noted this excerpt: "In fact, as Bahrain moves towards democracy, anger about the plight of the Palestinians -- often a proxy for discontent with the Arab states' own internal policies -- seems to be fading. After the Sept. 11 attack, Bahrain's opposition groups, anxious to avoid street violence targeting Americans here, quietly scrapped a planned large demonstration to mark the first anniversary of the Palestinian intifada. "People worried that, if there are actions against Americans, the reform process here will be set back," explains Abdulrahman al-Nuaimi, a former Marxist guerrilla who returned to Bahrain this February, after 33 years of exile that took him to Oman, Yemen, Iraq and Syria. Mr. al-Nuaimi, 57, was elected this month as head of the center-left Workers' Democratic National Association, one of the several proto-parties -- ranging from secular to religious -- springing up ahead of the elections. "I criticized the government on Bahraini TV, and they showed it," he says. "I said we want more democracy, and they showed it. This is very encouraging." This only goes to show that Sharansky is right. The only cure for the Middle East is democracy. What the Arab populations REALLY blame us for is not making their rulers be more democratic. Never mind what they say.