ABSTRACT
The events from mid-February to early March 2011, that saw among other events an outbreak of protest and unrest in Tunisia, resulting in the downfall of the government; a political revolution of sorts in Egypt and the overthrow of the tyrant Mubarak, and a serious challenge to the rule of Colonel Gaddafi in Libya, comprised a short period in which, to quote Adam Hanieh (2011), ‘the lessons of many decades can be telescoped into a few brief moments and seemingly minor occurrences can take on immense significance’. Developments in Egypt were particularly significant. The entry of millions of Egyptians onto the political stage graphically illuminated the processes that underlie the politics of the Middle East. Among other things, ‘it … laid bare the long-standing complicity of the US and other world powers with the worst possible regimes, revealed the empty and hypocritical rhetoric of US President Barack Obama and other leaders, exposed the craven capitulation of all the Arab regimes, and demonstrated the real alliances between these regimes, Israel and the US’. ‘These are’, as Hanieh notes, ‘political lessons that will long be remembered’.
