Falling apart

I go away for a month and look what happens, everything falls apart. There were:
riots in Tunisia, Algeria and now Egypt
suicide bombings in Moscow
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak resigned from the Labor Party and established his own Party
the Stuxnet virus continues to wreak havoc on the Iranian nuclear program
Hizbollah takes over the Lebanese Government
a Congresswoman is shot in Arizona
the secret "Palgate" papers were released by Al Jazeera, that threaten to destroy the PA

It's clear that I can't go away again for such a long time and leave the world and Israel in your hands. If I don't pay attention to what's going on things rapidly deteriorate. Or is that perhaps over-estimating my reach.

What of these developments are the most important? In my view it is the demonstrations in Tunisia and elsewhere, that for the first time have people in the Arab world demonstrating for improved conditions and democratic reforms. Of course, the results of these riots are not yet known and it is entirely possible that one or more of the extremist Islamist organizations will try to help to bring down the current reactionary Arab regimes and take over themselves. This is something that the West cannot allow to happen. But, it does seem that these are the first popular uprisings in the Arab world that are not motivated by Islamic forces or controlled by extremist elements. If these riots are successful it could transform the Arab world from a relative backwater to a more progressive European style area. But, that seems unlikely, and the outcome in Egypt could itself revolutionize the situation relative to Israel for better or more likely for worse.

The Stuxnet worm (by the way a worm is an undetectable computer malware that infiltrates and takes over a systems program, while a virus simply destroys it) was the focus of several detailed articles, including one in the NY Times on Jan 15 that concluded that it was probably concocted by Israeli agents with American support. It was reported that the US acquired Libyan nuclear centrifuges supplied by Pakistan of the same type installed by North Korea in Iran. This allowed the Israelis to test the effectiveness of the Stuxnet worm and be sure that it really worked as intended. The operators in Iran have no idea what their centrifuges are actually doing, even though they think they are acting normally. Thus, centrifuges can be destroyed, making a bombing campaign unnecessary. This is the first real action in the new area of cyberwarfare.

Finally, the release of the secret papers detailing that the Palestinian leadership was prepared in 2008 to compromise with Israel over such basic topics as land swaps and refugees, indicates that they are much more flexible in private than in public, something that has shocked the Arab world and might lead to another split in the Palestine movement and could result in the downfall of the Palestine Authority. This might give more power to Hamas, although another of the revelations was that the PA and the Israeli secret services have cooperated in decimating Hamas in the West Bank. However, these papers appear suspiciously like "wikileaks" leading some, including the PA, to label them a hoax. But, today PA spokesman Saeb Erekat acknowledged that some of the leaks are true.

But, don't worry now that I'm back things will come under control.