Daybreak: Egyptians in the Streets
Plus Obama administration, long pro-regime, voices support, and more in the news
January 28, 2011
Egyptians, protesting the Mubarak regime, sprayed by water cannon.(Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images)
• Egyptians woke up to find Internet access shut down. Many have taken to the streets in protest of the Mubarak regime, where they have been met by water cannons and rubber bullets. [WSJ]
• The Obama administration is offering measured but very real support for the Arab revolts, including in Egypt. [WP]
• WikiLeaks cables reveal that the Obama administration has largely shied from the airing and condemnation of Egyptian human rights abuses, in a successful effort to warm relations with the regime. [NYT]
• Israel, watching the proceedings to its south, cautiously believes Mubarak will not be toppled and there will be no Lebanon-like border incidents. [WP]
• Prime Minister Olmert’s legal troubles, President Abbas’s instransigence, and eventually the Gaza war torpedoed what had been in 2008 a very nearly reached peace deal, according to excerpts from Olmert’s new memoir. [NYT]
• New, Hezbollah-backed Lebanese Prime Minister Nijab Mikati pledged to cut an independent path and not interfere with the U.N. tribunal invesigating the Hariri assassination (which is difficult to believe given Hezbollah’s stake). [NYT]
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.
