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A charm of powerful trouble

That’s Shakespeare’s description of the witches’ brew in Macbeth, but it seems apt for what may be brewing in parts of the Arab world these days.  Today’s big demonstrations in Egypt aiming to spook President Mubarak and derail his effort to give the presidency to his son follow closely on yesterday’s naming of a Lebanese prime minister (albeit a wealthy, Sunni one) by Hizbollah. We need hardly mention the uprising in Tunisia, whose outcome is still in doubt despite (or maybe because of) the vows of the army chief to defend the popular will. And the pot may still boil over in Algeria or Libya.

To me, there is nothing surprising about people discovering the will to rebel and overthrow oppressive or unrepresentative political systems, however difficult to predict it may be.

What is interesting to watch is the differentiated reaction to events in the West.  How is what’s happening in Lebanon less democratic than what’s happening in Tunisia? You’d think from Washington’s reaction that the devil himself had ceased power in Beirut, when all that has happened is naming of a government that can gain a majority in parliament. Hizbollah is not a legitimate democratic political party, since it runs its own army and terrorist cells as well as social services.  But does anyone doubt it would be successful politically in Lebanon even without its military dimension?

Washington’s enthusiasm for popular revolt in Tunisia, which otherwise doesn’t count for much in the West, is palpable.  We rarely send an Assistant Secretary of State off to ensure free and fair elections in the aftermath of a popular revolt.  You’d think we hadn’t spent several decades helping former President Ben Ali avoid the popular will.  But I guess there is little else you can do when your man has fled the country.  I do hope however that we are keeping an eye on the army chief and trying to ensure that he protects, rather than expropriates, the popular will.

Egypt is a different case altogether. You can watch one tidbit that demonstrates considerable police discipline, and somewhat less than complete determination on the demonstrator side, here:

The blogotwittersphere may be enthusiastic, and critical of Al Jazeera for downplaying today’s events.  But official Washington is not going to welcome in Egypt anything like what happened in Tunisia.  I do hope however that President Obama will find the gumption to tell President Mubarak that the legitimacy of the succession depends in large part on how open and fair the process is.  How it is handled will determine more than anything else whether the result is “Like a hell-broth boil and bubble,” or something more like a democratic opening in the Arab world.