The Guardian offers its readers a piece headlined ‘Turkish democracy can rise to the Kurdish challenge’. The author suggests that, with a new civilian constitution, Turkey may be able to show the world that
full democracy is possible in an Islamic country. Last Sunday's elections in Turkey, won with a sweeping victory by the ruling Justice and Development (AK) party, brought the country much closer to conclusively tackling two major challenges: finding a solution to the chronic, and traumatic, Kurdish conflict; and replacing the restrictive constitution with a new, civilian one.
The Guardian also published an article touching upon the biography of the new leader of Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The material is headlined ‘Ayman al-Zawahiri: Al-Qaida's arrogant doctor of death’.
The Washington Post published an article entitled ‘Obama must tell Assad to go’. Six months into the Arab Spring, the Obama administration is struggling to keep pace with events and communicate a revised regional policy. One White House official described the current approach as “leading from behind,” a curious yet valid reflection that the United States cannot control events as they unfold. It might also be called leading from the shadows, doing many things in private and saying little in public. But this traditional diplomatic approach ignores the networked nature of the Arab Spring. Events are playing out in real time and in the open. According to the author, while the United States waits for the region to draw a new map, hesitation carries real costs. Reduced credibility now could translate into reduced influence down the road if these transitions are unsuccessful.
Polling since the Arab Spring shows little change in regional attitudes toward the United States. In Egypt, while the United States never publicly called on President Hosni Mubarak to step down, President Obama pushed hard behind the scenes. But public opinion there gives the United States little if any credit. Elsewhere, the administration is seen as doing not enough (Bahrain) or too much (Saudi Arabia). Some of this is inevitable and attitudes could change over time, but so far there is no “new beginning”, as Obama sought in his Cairo speech two years ago. At a truly historic moment, the United States is an uncertain player. This is most evident in Syria. Last month, despite weeks of violence, Obama still gave Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a choice: “He can lead [the] transition or get out of the way.” The author concludes that the US cannot solve the Syrian challenge overnight, but it is time to get off the fence and on the right side of history.
According to The Los Angeles Times, after an embarrassing US crackdown last month, many in Jerusalem are pushing the government to strengthen trade measures. Even as Israel rallies other nations to boycott Iran, its own commercial sanctions against the Islamic Republic are outdated, vague and poorly enforced, say lawmakers and legal analysts in Jerusalem, who are pushing the government to strengthen such measures.
The effort took on added urgency last month after an embarrassing U.S. crackdown on Ofer Bros. Group, one of Israel's largest conglomerates, which the State Department found had violated American sanctions
against Iran by using a Singapore subsidiary to sell an oil tanker to an Iranian front company.
