Unexpected Whiff of Freedom Proves Bracing for the Mideast
By Neil MacFarquhar, The New York Times, March 6, 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/international/middleeast/06mideast.html

Several recent events in the Middle East give rise to the notion that freedom is in fact beginning to infiltrate the once dominated authoritarian rule region. Popular manifestations of this are the advent of a semblance of multiparty elections in Egypt, elections in Palestine, popular protests against Syria in Lebanon, and limited municipal elections in Saudi Arabia have begun to take steps towards offering more democratic freedoms to their citizens. Pressure from outside forces, reflective of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, and most notably from the Bush Administration which vowed to no longer support repressive governments, has in fact emboldened demonstrators in these respective countries to test that stance. It is premature to judge the depth of these developments and whether they offer evidence that institutional reforms are in the offing, but the idea of challenging authoritarian regimes is a significant new phenomenon.