News Brief: International pressure builds on an isolated Qaddafi

International pressure builds on an isolated Qaddafi
The international community continues to condemn the mass violence in Libya under ruler Muammar Qaddafi, and senior figures in his government begin to join the opposition. Italy’s Foreign Minister estimates that 1,000 people have been killed since the start of Libyan protests. The UN Security Council demanded on Tuesday that Qaddafi ends the violence in a unanimous statement from the 15 members of the security council, and the Arab League has suspended Libya.

Meanwhile, the Libyan leader said protesters are “drug-fueled mice” who should be executed in a 75-minute nationwide speech on Tuesday. The leader threatened to “cleanse Libya house by house” if protesters did not give up their demonstrations. “When they are caught they will beg for mercy, but we will not be merciful,” he said. The country has been torn in half, with Qaddafi and his regime controlling the capital, Tripoli, and oil fields in the west — while the opposition control the second-largest city, Benghazi, as well as the oil fields in that region.

• Turmoil in Libya impacts oil prices.
• Bahrain frees political prisoners and pardons exiles.
• Saudi Arabian King announces new benefits to include pay raises, job creation and loan forgiveness.
• Syria is offering cash payments to thousands of vulnerable families.
• Two protesters killed at Yemen rally.
• PA Prime Minister Fayyad proposes a unity government with Hamas.

Daily Snapshot

Demonstrators gather to protest against Libya’s Muammar Kadhafi outside 10 Downing Street in central London, on February 22, 2011. A defiant Moamer Kadhafi said on Tuesday he would remain in Libya as head of its revolution, and that he had no official position from which to resign (BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images).

Arguments & Analysis
‘Jordan’s balancing act’ (Nicholas Pelham, MERIP)
Writing in MERIP, Nicholas Pelham looks at Jordan’s fragile political situation and assesses the balancing act being currently undertaken by the King. “Should the discontent grow, regardless, where might King ‘Abdallah look next? However awkwardly, the king has already initiated a tentative overture to the Islamists. Much as his father relied upon them as a strategic reserve against a Nasserist-inspired Egyptian tide, he could yet engage them fully. By empowering their disenfranchised followers, particularly Palestinians, such a gambit might help still discontent, as well as attract capital back from the Gulf. But the price would be to weaken further East Banker influence on the governing structures and to lend credence to those who claim Jordan is evolving into a Palestinian state. This move might also impair the king’s strategic orientation toward Israel and, more broadly, his Western patrons, at a time of greater royal need. For all the damage done to the West’s credibility in the region, that is a shift the Westernized ‘Abdallah is unlikely to undertake unless desperation sets in.”

‘Islamists: Politics beckons once again’ (Nathan Brown, Carnegie Endowment for Int’l Peace)
Fresh off a trip to Jordan and Palestine, Nathan Brown reflects on the state of Islamist politics in the region. He describes how Egypt now appears post-Mubarak and what the political space might look like going forward. “It must also be noted that we do not yet know what the rules of the electoral game will be. The junta has suggested a sequence of elections-first a referendum on constitutional amendments, then parliamentary elections, then presidential elections-but its control over events is shaky. And while the constitutional drafting committee is promising to open up the electoral process and return to judicial monitoring, that will require a host of legal and institutional changes that have yet to be specified.The Brotherhood’s current tactic of positioning itself firmly in the opposition camp while issuing general reassuring signals makes sense. Rather than seize the moment, the movement seems to be patiently waiting to see which opportunities seem most attractive. And that is the same with other Islamist movements in the region.” Meanwhile, see Brown’s other reflections from his trip: ‘Jordan: not on the brink but in crisis” and ‘Palestinians: the unsustainable may no longer be sustainable’.

‘President Obama’s peace-process moment’ (Robert Wexler, Politico )
Especially given the transformative change sweeping across the Arab world, now is an essential time to attempt a serious push on Israel-Palestine. Bottom line: “It is delusional to assume that the West Bank and Gaza will sit idly by until leaders feel more comfortable to address the pressing issues. If Egypt has taught us anything, we are forewarned that the Palestinian quest for dignity and statehood cannot remain the exclusive domain of diplomats for long. Better to get out ahead of events, while the United States, Israel and moderate Palestinians still enjoy considerable leverage. Obama should now offer a way forward that reasserts Washington’s principled leadership and strength in the Middle East, while protecting Israel’s security and Jewish character and recognizing the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for statehood and dignity.”

‘1789-2011?‘ (Robert Darnton, New York Review of Books)
Darnton makes the analogy to revolutions of old to describe the current uprisings in Egypt and elsewhere. To wit: “For five days in the midst of Egypt’s revolution, the old regime tried to save itself by cutting off all access to the Internet. The revolutionaries responded by passing messages by word of mouth through human networks. In that respect, I think they fell back on the same oral means of communication that proved crucial in Paris in 1789. Just as the storming of the Bastille began on July 12, 1789, when Camille Desmoulins leaped on a table in the garden of the Palais-Royal and urged the crowd to take arms from the Hôtel des Invalides, so the protestors in Cairo succeeded in taking Tahrir Square by urging groups to gather at certain central places and then march en masse.”