First of all, yet another article on the transformation of Saudi Arabia. This one is from Newsweek, and it talks about King Abdullah and his building response to extremism since 9/11. It's a good read, and it does a good job of talking about what his efforts mean and the obstacles he faces. If you don't have the time, it talks about how bizarre it is that the reforms of Saudi come from the King and not the people. It is a good reminder of how far Saudi Arabia has come in the past 90+ years. It would have been nice to see more on how the government created this ultra conservative society through adopting one of the most conservative interpretations of Islam around (Wahabi) but hey, at least it talked about why the US government has taken to calling Saudi Arabia a "moderate" Arab country.
Next, John Mearsheimer comes back for more in Foreign Policy, I wrote about his (and Walt's) book before, and it recieved a lot of criticism. Here he talks about Israel's election of Netanyahu, and the rise to power of Avigor Lieberman, a man who openly advocate the removal of all Palestinians, even Israeli citizens, from Israel. I think that's called genocide by most people, but I might be mistaken. Great article, but just like his book, he really could have used more sources because its such a hot button issue. The real question that he is asking is not about what Israel should do, but at the end, how America should respond to an Israeli government that is not willing to compromise to make a peace deal.
On a third and even more depressing note, I have to mention the Rolling Stones article by Matt Taibi. Honestly, this doesn't have much to do with the Mid-East, but it does have to do with my mini rant on AIG from before. He talks about all the garbage that went down leading up to the current crisis, and I think its a really good long explanation on what people did to cause the situation. If you can understand the economic lingo thats in it, its awesome. Hunter Thomson would be proud.
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