The Shaking Throne of Arab Tyrants

The sentiment of the Arab world's tyrants toward the dramatic democratic uprising Tunisia was best exemplified by the House of Saud's own 24/7 news [sic] channel: al Arabiya.

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The network worked constantly in apologia for the Tunisian tyrant Ben Ali and its Tunisia correspondent was behaving as a P.R. rep for the authoritarian regime. This reporting was characterized by two features: 1) an effort to portray courageous Tunisian demonstrators against brutal and deadly police forces as the bad things by focusing on Tunisians burning down the offices of the ruling party and the banks run by the regime's cronies. 2) after Ben Ali made an incredulous speech promising reform, al Arabiya played it up and even stated that Tunisians have responded favorably to their president's words. Arabs regimes could only wish.

The next day the largest demonstration took place and Ben Ali fled the country for - where else? - Saudi Arabia. The ossified regime, which looked invisible just a few days back, was shown to be futile in its efforts to appease a public which finally had enough with the corruption and repression. And would remain implacable unless the president left the country (Tunisians shouted in the Capital on Friday, "Ben Ali you liar, get out, get out of [or from] the country." It rhymes in Arabic) and true democracy was ushered.

The prime minister has become the interim president and promised a coalition government with the opposition until free elections are held soon.

Arab regimes, many of whom face even worse conditions as the ones which sparked the revolt in Tunis, are terrified tonight as they saw a determined Arab public, even in the face of deadly force which Arab tyrannies excel at, bring down one of the most authoritarian and previously seen as one of the most stable regimes in the Arab world. Tunisians were afraid, they had shaken the fear of the regime, and that's what Arab regimes fear most: that their people will stop being fearful.

Arabs regimes were cheering for Ben Ali to survive so that their own people, who had been mesmerized watching the Jasmine Revolt in great hope and solidarity, would not be inspired and instead demoralized. But the Arab people have learned tonight that it is not that difficult to bring a regime after all if the people remain united and steadfast.

In the palaces of the East the region's aging dictators are shaken with fear that this revolution will soon rally their own people and lead them to follow Ben Ali with their own planes.

May the Tunisian people rise from this in a free model for the entire Arab world.