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Tunisia - Arab World's First Popular Uprising

(Jerusalem Post) Zvi Mazel - What happened in Tunisia stunned and embarrassed Arab and Western countries alike. Tunisia was not a country made of revolutionary material. President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's government was stable and the economy prosperous. The country had expelled Rashad Anushi and the other leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood after their party, Islamic Renewal, had obtained 17% of the vote in the 1987 elections. Since then, the West had seen in Ben Ali a bulwark against radical Islam. What no one wanted to see was that Ben Ali ruled with an iron fist and suffered neither legitimate opposition nor criticism. Corruption was rampant and the Ben Ali family, and that of his second wife Laila, were the principal beneficiaries. Suddenly the world was looking at a successful popular Arab revolution. There had been revolutions in the Arab world since it became independent of foreign colonial powers, but they were all military coups. What happened in Tunisia was different. It was started by the people, not the leaders, and their spontaneous protest appears to have been an authentic popular uprising. Arab countries are worried. Royal and presidential palaces are wondering whether this revolution will be the harbinger of more. The writer is a former Israeli ambassador to Romania, Egypt and Sweden, and a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
2011-01-17 07:36:52
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