<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[New Reality of Arab&nbsp;Street]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p><strong>By Iqbal Jassat – Pretoria </strong></p>
<p>Has the American dream of permanent supremacy in the oil-rich region of the world been shattered?</p>
<p>It’s  a question that not only haunts influential institutions that function  as pillars of power in America’s global hegemony; but also torments a  wide array of rightwing think tanks masquerading as ‘impartial  analysts’.</p>
<p>In addition, Israel, America’s foremost regional ally  and partner in policing the Arab world is also in agony! The Zionist  entity that for far too long had played roughshod over the lives of its  victims is suddenly gripped with misery, distress and wretchedness.</p>
<p>It’s  a scenario that a few weeks ago would have been dismissed as  unthinkable. Yet, as events unfold in dramatic and drastic ways across  the entire Middle East and North Africa, it has become clear that  politics governing the Arab street will not be the same ever again.</p>
<p>The  ouster from power of Tunisia’s autocratic leader Ben Ali commenced the  opening of a new chapter of popular revolts. And against all odds, the  inspiring success of Egypt’s ‘intifada’ leading to the toppling of the  region’s highly prized trophy Hosni Mubarak reinforced the fact that the  face of geo-politics had changed.</p>
<p>As Bahrain and Yemen remain  gripped with mounting pressure from street protests demanding  fundamental human rights coupled with regime change, the Saudi kingdom’s  long-suffering populace has now demonstrated that they too have  overcome the threshold of fear and taken to the street to challenge the  King’s police state!</p>
<p>While full-blown revolutions intensify  against American-backed dictators and monarchs – many of whom are in  power for decades without any accountability, Libya and its maverick  ‘brother leader’ dominate the current concentration of news, analysis  and policy debates.</p>
<p>Muammar Gaddafi has in fact turned out to be  more than just a lunatic with an extremely inflated ego. He has  unleashed his military arsenal on the Libyan population imitating  Israel’s bloody conduct against Palestinians resisting Occupation. His  behaviour and utterances suggest that Gaddafi is able to defy American  demands for him to cease violent suppression of protesters because the  US is complicit in worse thuggery with the military aid and protection  it provides Israel to commit acts of genocide!</p>
<p>In a remarkable  turn of events Gaddafi who only recently was repackaged by Western  states as a ‘rehabilitated terrorist’ with whom it was fine to do  business while expedient to ignore his 42year old dictatorship, has  become a major source of embarrassment for his new buddies! This is  likely to compound as he finds himself isolated and would reason that  despite the enormity of Israel’s on-going crimes and violations of human  rights it remains immune from prosecution!</p>
<p>In his madness,  Gaddafi has turned into a monster not only by his violent reaction to an  overwhelming majority of Libyans who demand his exit; but also to his  Western allies by invoking the same bogey of al-Qaeda to justify  crushing the rebellion with brute force. Gaddafi’s message to America  and NATO is that his actions are in full conformity with their illegal  wars in Iraq and Afghanistan under the rubric of “war on terror”!</p>
<p>Hence,  one is not surprised that the Obama administration is settling on a  Middle East strategy known as “Regime Alteration” whereby it will help  keep longtime allies who are willing to reform in power, even if it  means the full democratic demands of their newly emboldened citizens  might have to wait.</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal reports that this  approach has emerged amid furious lobbying of the administration by Arab  regimes who were alarmed that President Barack Obama had abandoned  Egypt’s Mubarak and worried that, if the US did the same to the  beleaguered king of Bahrain, a chain of revolts could sweep them from  power, too, and further upend the region’s stability.</p>
<p>As protests  intensify in the Arab street and begin to propel in spectacular revolts  across the region it has become increasingly clear that dramatic changes  will not be prevented by architects of an American empire – the dream  of all US administrations!</p>
<p><em>&#8211; Iqbal Jassat is chairperson of  the Media Review Network (MRN), an advocacy group based in Pretoria,  South Africa. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.  Visit: </em><a href="http://www.mediareviewnet.com/"><em>www.mediareviewnet.com</em></a><em>.</em></p>
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