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Thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators are camped in Tahrir Square in Cairo, refusing to leave despite attempts by the illegitimate regime of Hosni Mubarak and the Egyptian military to force them out.

Former US President George Bush canceled a forthcoming trip to Geneva fearing that he might be arrested. Bush was to be keynote speaker at a gala dinner organized by the Jewish group, Keren Hayesod, on February 12.

General Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali’s ouster from power has opened Tunisia’s political landscape somewhat. Political parties and various groups, such as trade unions and lawyers’ associations, are jostling to secure an advantageous position in the uncertain political climate that currently reflects Tunisian society. Political parties that existed legally were obviously tainted by cooperation with the regime.

Friends and neighbors of Abouzizi’s were so horrified by his suicide that his funeral was turned into a protest rally despite threats from the police.

The release of more than 1,600 secret documents by al-Jazeera TV on January 23 pertaining to complete surrender by the Palestinian Authority (PA) negotiators has confirmed what people have known all along.

The Tunisian dictator, General Zine el-Abidin Ben Ali has been driven from power. The leaderless uprising that forced his departure has been dubbed a “revolution” and Ben Ali’s flight has aroused hopes among people in the Middle East that they too can get rid of their dictators, most of them aging and in power for far too long.

The attempted assassination of US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson Arizona on January 8 (six people were killed in the attack and 14, including Giffords, injured) inevitably provoked a storm in the country. The main focus of the debate has of the debate has been the role of right-wing politicians and commentators, particularly the Republican former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

This solar month — the Persian Bahman and the Gregorian February — marks 32 years since the culmination of the Islamic spirit of change that swept away the decrepit regime of the great grandson of Cyrus the great, his majesty, the now six-foot under.

After two weeks of political uncertainty, the situation in Lebanon began to stabilize on January 25 when the Hizbullah-led alliance secured the support of 68 parliamentarians compared to 60 for the ousted Prime Minister Saad Hariri. President Michel Suleiman asked Najib Mikati, another former prime minister, to form the new government.

The Palestinian issue has been virtually stalemated since before Israel’s war on Gaza in 2008–2009, with Hamas, the most popular and legitimate Palestinian leadership bottled up in the besieged and densely populated Gaza, and the West Bank under the increasingly repressive rule of Mahmood Abbas’s Palestinian Authority (PA).