Apparently It's "Embassy-Storming Week" In the Annals of "Smart Diplomacy"

Egypt. Libya. Now Yemen.   The news story mentions Tunisia too.  This is insane. And deeply troubling.

UPDATE: It's spreading beyond US embassies to the German and British embassies in Sudan. This means the gentle reader Eric's comment below was right on the money, since he made it before the attacks in Sudan.

Meditating on the Middle East: An Open Letter to the Foreign Policy Establishment

What do you think?

Nerd News: Islamists Storm Tunisian University

This can't be good.

Nerd Analysis: Fouad Ajami on the Weak Horse

Read this.  The weak horse and, literally and metaphorically, yesterday's news?  UPDATE:  Read this too.

Nerd Analysis: Professor Lewis on the Doomed Tyrannies of the Middle East

The undisputed master of Middle Eastern studies, Professor Bernard Lewis of Princeton, takes another look at the ongoing instability in the Middle East.

Nerd Analysis: Prof. Bernard Lewis on the Arab Uprisings

"A mass expression of outrage against injustice."  Read the whole thing.  Professor Lewis had earlier thoughts on Egypt here.

Quote of the Day: In London, "The Foreign Office no longer understood foreign affairs"

The whole piece is interesting, but this bit should give us all pause for thought:

Not the least of the pleasures the North African revolutions are bringing is the look of astonishment on the face of the foreign policy establishment. The world has become a constant source of surprise for diplomats and ministers, as each news bulletins lands a fresh blow on their crumbling certainties. "Tunisia, who knew?" "Egypt? Egypt! WTF?" So lost has Whitehall become, Alistair Burt, the Middle East minister, admits that the Foreign Office no longer understood foreign affairs. "The tide is turning very strongly," he sighed. "It's not for us to sit here in London and work out where that tide is going to go." 

We are witnessing a diplomatic failure as great as the failure to predict the collapse of Soviet communism. Revolts in the Arab world are coming in a manner and from a quarter the experts never expected. 

Add another thought: the experts were wrong, and they thought they knew more than they actually did.  They had built their assumptions on (pardon the expression as we talk of the Middle East) foundations of sand.

RELATED POST: Israel as sideshow, not driving factor.

Nerd Analysis: Prof. Bernard Lewis on Egypt

Professor Lewis needs no introduction, really.  He is a giant in Middle Eastern Studies.  Do see what he has to say about Egypt, the Middle East, and Obama's foreign policy.  (Link via Transterrestrial Musings.)  Here is a teaser:

“At the moment, the general perception, in much of the Middle East, is that the United States is an unreliable friend and a harmless enemy. I think we want to give the exact opposite impression.”

You don't say!  What we actually want is to be is a steadfast friend and a dangerous enemy.  You'd think this would be obvious.  But sadly, no!  I do like one of Transterrestrial Musings' commenters, who quoted my beloved Tony Stark: "Is it better to be feared or respected?  I say, is it too much to ask for both?"

Yemen: Another Sclerotic Regime Down

It's over for President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power for 30 years.  Add this to Tunisia and Egypt, and take a look at what's going on in Jordan.  Hmmmm.  We do live in -- what's that phrase?  ah yes -- interesting times.

Quote of the Day: Egypt and the Middle East Narrative

Hmmmm:

The anti-Mubarak revolution won't only topple an authoritarian regime. It will also topple 40-plus years of wrong-headed thinking about the causes of Middle East instability among the world's foreign-policy cognoscenti. 

In that view, the horrible relationship between Israel and the Arabs is the dominant issue for the Near East's 20-plus nations and its 250-million-plus people -- and the root cause of the region's tempestuousness. 

But now that Tunisia's street revolt against a corrupt dictatorial regime has led to Egypt's similar revolt only in a matter of weeks, with God knows what to follow elsewhere, the plain truth can no longer be denied: Israel is a sideshow.

Nerd News: Tunisia and Its Higher Education Bubble Burst

Uh-oh.

Protest Like An Egyptian

Things are happening fast, and they are fluid.  We've all been watching Egypt (and Tunisia and Yemen) with great interest.  Here is an interesting piece on the region and what it might mean to walk protest like an Egyptian. Blurb:

The most telling aspect of the anti-regime demonstrations that have rocked the Arab world is what they are not about: They are not about the existential plight of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation; nor are they at least overtly anti-Western or even anti-American. The demonstrators have directed their ire against unemployment, tyranny, and the general lack of dignity and justice in their own societies. This constitutes a sea change in modern Middle Eastern history.

Hmmmm.  Oh, and here's some liveblogging on Egypt by the Atlantic and live coverage by the Telegraph.