How ironic that a regime that so insistently perpetuated the cult of martyrdom may itself become undone with the aid of an Iranian martyr: a 26-year-old woman named Neda Agha-Solton.

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A few readers raised the very reasonable complaint that none of us has blogged about the events in Iran. You're right. A few feeble excuses: Andrew was in Saudi, Scott back in the U.S. and I was traveling through Lebanon and Syria.  This may come as something of a shock to a few of the commentators, who actually think that I just rip stories out of the Israeli newspapers and re-cycle them as my own, but I actually find it hard, not to mention pointless, to write about things and places of which I have no immediate, first-hand knowledge. Iran is one of them. The last time I was there was in 2005, when I hiked up to the castle of the Assassins on a windy crag outside Teheran.

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Republican critics of the Obama Administration are having a field day with the crisis in Iran. To them, Obama's less than forceful criticism of the Iranian government's crackdown on protesters  in Tehran smacks of the lack of resolve typical of Democrats. Some have compared Obama to Jimmy Carter, whose bungled handling of the hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 irreparably hurt his presidency. Others have noted the the popular uprising in Tehran is a vindication of the Bush Administrations confrontational policies towards Iran, and the former President's emphasis on bring democracy to the Middle East, if necessary by force.

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Arriving in Saudi Arabia for the first time is initially anti-climactic. I guess I was expecting Riyadh, the capital of this fabulously wealthy desert kingdom, to have a little more bling. In reality, Riyadh has just two tall buildings, including the iconic Kingdom Center (pictured left.) Not much to compare with with Dubai's skyscraper alley -- Sheik Zayed Road, and the world tallest building, Burj Dubai. Riyadh's airport and many major government buildings have a distinctly 70's concrete-style, relics of the first big oil boom.

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So far most Arab leaders have reacted to the Iranian electoral crisis in typical Middle Eastern fashion: they haven't. Amir Moussa, the head of the Arab League, took one for the team and made this non-statement statement: "We hope that the next term will witness progress on the relations between Iran and the Arab world and co-operation in establishing peace in the Middle East." Other than such empty formalities, there has been an awkward silence from most Arab capitals.

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 “I am the absolute winner of the election by a very large margin. It is our duty to defend people's votes. There is no turning back.”

 Challenger Mir Hossein Moussavi spoke those words before the Iranian regime announced that he had been roundly defeated in Iran's presidential election by the controversial, hard-line incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A statement on Moussavi's website later called on his supporters to resist “lies and dictatorship.”

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In a surprising boost for the Obama Administration Middle East agenda, Lebanon's American-backed ruling coalition maintained its majority in parliament after the country voted in record numbers yesterday. 

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Today's  election in Lebanon has been billed as one of the most important in the country's history, and it certainly feels that way. Polling stations have been packed this morning, and the country is on a military semi-lockdown. Nightclubs and bars closed early last night, and almost everything else has been shut since. 

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Politician's wives at a rally for the Lebanese Forces and other Christian parties on Wednesday night in East Beirut.

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 In referring to conflict and religious wars that have marred relations between Islam and the West over the centuries, President Obama's Cairo speech mentioned the problems of colonialism and great power rivalries in more recent times. “Tension,” Obama said, “has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations.” The reference struck a chord with his Middle East audience, and reminded me of the story of “Roosevelt's erection.”

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