December 1, 2011- Iranian Set Backs, Egyptian Elections

Developments in Iran have been coming at a fast and furious pace... Some good, some less so. Much remains unknown. First, the Iranians seem to have seriously miscalculated with their attack on the British Embassy in Teheran. The attack has fueled an unprecedented level of anger at Iran. Instead of deterring Eurpean countries from taking more action against Iran, it may well have had the opposite effect. The British and French have lobbied to get the EU to take very strong action against the Iranians at today’s EU meeting. While at least initially, they came away with only limited sanctions against Iran, there is clear sense that this may just be the first round.

Meanwhile, there are more and more reports that the Iranian reactor at Isfahan was seriously damaged in the explosion earlier this week. The Iranian reaction, through all of this, has been confused. This seems to reflect the fact that there is a serious split in the Iranian government. Iranian President Ahmedinejad has not been seen in public for over two weeks. There is even some speculation that he was either killed or wounded in the explosion at the missle base two weeks ago. This is probably only wishful thinking but...

While the official results of the Egyptian elections have not been released, all of the initial reports indicate that the Islamists have won a major victory. Polls show the Muslim Brotherhood winning over 40% of the vote; followed by the Safi’s (an even more fundamentalist Islamic group). The Safi have made their position clear, that in their thinking, democracy and Islam cannot coexist. They also oppose tourism, since they feel it corrupts the country.

I suppose anyone who looked at the demonstrations in Tahrir Square and was looking for Jeffersonian Democracy was engaging in wishful thinking. I guess if Israel looked mostly like Meir Shearim it would be no different. To that end, read Ari Shavit's article, it says it all Arab Spring Election Result:Allah Won