Tunisia, Egypt and Palestine (plus a bit of Wikileaks)

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Listening Post - The revolution was not televised...

As events in Tunisia unfolded, it was evident that media - new and old - were playing a huge role. We analyse that media angle of the story in our show this week. Also, we have a report on satellite imagery and its growing role in modern journalism.

When protesters took to the streets in Tunisia back in December, the Ben Ali government cracked down hard on the media - shutting down news outlets, arresting bloggers and locking out foreign journalists. But through sites like Facebook and Twitter, pictures of the protests were able to get out and were picked up by satellite TV channels. The images spread like wildfire through the Arab world, reaching audiences across the region and binding them to the ever changing story. Western news outlets on the other hand, at least initially, failed to give the story the coverage it deserved.MORE

Meantime Egyptians ignored a No Protest order And continue to protest their government

A protester and a police officer were killed in central Cairo as anti-government demonstrators pelted security forces with rocks and firebombs for a second day, according to witnesses.

Activists had called on people to rally again on Wednesday after a "Day of Wrath" the previous day had seen thousands of people take to the streets across Egypt to complain of poverty, unemployment, corruption and repression.

A total of six people, four protesters and two policemen, have been killed so far in the largely unprecedented mass anger at the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president.

"The people want the regime to fall," protesters chanted. MORE

Also, CBS has a roundup of all the stories that we heard from Wikileaks so far:


How WikiLeaks Enlightened Us in 2010

However, WikiLeaks' revelations also have many major implications for world relations. The following is a list of the more impactful WikiLeaks revelations from 2010, grouped by region.
The United States
- The U.S. Army considered WikiLeaks a national security threat as early as 2008, according to documents obtained and posted by WikiLeaks in March, 2010.
- Then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his top commanders repeatedly, knowingly lied to the American public about rising sectarian violence in Iraq beginning in 2006, according to the cross-referencing of WikiLeaks' leaked Iraq war documents and former Washington Post Baghdad Bureau Chief Ellen Knickmeyer's recollections.
- The Secretary of State's office encouraged U.S. diplomats at the United Nations to spy on their counterparts, including collecting data about the U.N. secretary general, his team and foreign diplomats, including credit card account numbers, according to documents from WikiLeaks U.S. diplomatic cable release. Later cables reveal the CIA draws up an annual "wish-list" for the State Department, which one year included the instructions to spy on the U.N.MORE

The Palestine Papers

Al Jazeera and The Guardian continue to release interesting stuff, which include such gems like this:

"The biggest Yerushalayim"

PA offered to concede almost all of East Jerusalem, an historic concession for which Israel offered nothing in return.MORE

Papers reveal how Palestinian leaders gave up fight over refugees

• Negotiators agreed just 10,000 to return
• PLO agreed Israel could be a 'Jewish state'
• US suggested Palestinians live in Latin AmericaMORE

Which is being greeted with a rather resounding HELL NO from many of said refugees Palestinian refugees rule out compromise on return to homeland


PA lobbying blocked Shalit swap

MI6 offered to detain Hamas figures

The Threat of a One State Solution

PA negotiators are increasingly proposing an idea that's met with derision from Israelis, sharp criticism from the US.MORE

PA stonewalled the Goldstone vote

What The Palestine Papers demonstrate is that, in the weeks preceding the vote, the United States apparently urged the PA to stall the report as a means of restarting negotiations with Israel.MORE

The PA blocked potential prisoner swaps that would have freed thousands of Palestinians and Shalit.MORE

Teh US' role as Israel's Enabler


US threat to Palestinians: change leadership and we cut funds


Erekat "told Amr Moussa to behave"

PA is bluntly critical of many Arab states, particularly Egyptian efforts to broker a deal between Hamas and Fatah.MORE

The region is slipping away

Documents reveal a Palestinian Authority that's critical, mistrustful and fearful of Arab neighbours.
MORE

Tony Blair accused of Pro Israel Bias

Expelling Israel's Arab population?

Israeli negotiators, including Tzipi Livni, proposed "swapping" some of Israel's Arab villages into a Palestinian state.MORE

Demanding a demilitarized state

Israeli negotiators demanded to keep Israeli troops in the West Bank and to maintain control of Palestinian airspace.MORE

The Palestinian Authority comes out looking really bad in this, so they are saying that the papers are faked, lies and halftruths and top negotiator Saab Erekat says that the papers prove that Palestinians are serious about peace. Reactions among the Palestinians themselves have been mixed.

Palestine Papers spark fury in Ramallah