if you are from arab world, you are an arab. that is what we should talk about. >> i just wanted to be a low bit rate and terms some of things that were said at the income and i think it's an important discussion. i also wonder how much is generational. how much has changed with the generation because i know that my. group is very -- has gone to build discussion in terms of who should be included and who shouldn't get and also recognize, there was a tribute to the civil rights activists have come before and really paved the past. i'm wondering when were able to go beyond that to recognize that there has been change and as the advancement. huge amount of where we need to go, but also wonder without institutions how it will be great. because to challenge that way of thinking which has been passed on through generations as well so we are nowhere where we need to be. but to challenge that, to be more importantly relevant i think you need, and it does have the formalized institutions but faith-based grid where you can have that dialo

if you are from the arab world, you are an arab. and that should be what we talk about. >> i just want to be a little brief and challenging some of the things said at the end and i think it to say cut for discussion and i wonder how much is generational. so how much has changed with the degeneration because i know that my group is very inclusive and has gone beyond the old discussions in terms of who should be included and who shouldn't and also recognize that what is to get tribute to the activists who've come from before and really paved the half, so i think that has changed, that tone has changed and when we are able to go beyond and say let's recognize there has to be changed. huge amounts of where we need to go. but i also wonder without institutions how the state is going to be created. to really be able to challenge that way of thinking through the generation as well so we know where we need to be put to be able to challenge that way of thinking to be inclusive, to be more importantly relevant i think you need -- it doesn't h

the arab states and not between the arab government.he arab government -- the arab league has been behaving as if it's legal fire of government, not the legal fire of states. states as government and people. and civil society. and therefore, i will answer the question that all the constructive proposals of the economic common market perhaps also and economic money is no longer in the realm of impossible. it has become as a result of what we witnessed today within the realm of the feasible and the possible and the real. >> wonderful. we would like to take the question. i'd like to have you line up right there in the step there. >> hello. do we have a microphone? >> please make it brief. because we are running out of time. >> you know, i think we need this one for the panel. so i would like you to have -- >> half an hour. >> with an agenda; right? [laughter] >> equality. >> i will go first. i'm sad to inform we have ten minutes for the questions and answers. i'm very sorry. thank you. >> no problem. just yesterday in the panel, one the pa

the arab spring is not limited to the arab world. it is here as well. it is a really positive thing and hopefully there'll be more positive changes. it is and is going to be better in the future, with some changes. >> 10 years ago, had this happen, you would not have had the same kind of controversy we are having. this is happening because people are talking online. i firmly believe that. 10 years ago, a 24-hour turnaround would have been fine to fix the situation. >> it would have gotten a letter in today's about it. -- in two days about it. >> my question is, we see with grass-roots organizations, they are elevating a message that is abstract and can get clear point across. as you become more elevated and more of a formalized organization, they want to have their cake and eat it, too. they post things that are energetic and unique, but there is always the sidebar that this is not an endorsement. anything we say is not a part of this thing. in this area of truth sector and large companies like facebook that will sell you out if they feel like they need

it's been called the arab spring, it's been called the arab awakening. b frankly, i don't see it as the arab spring because spring with blood is not pretty. what can be done to enable americans to help, to support the democratic institution building?inst khaled, you joined us. b we welcome you to the panel. can you, would you like to givel a brief introduction and answer or contribute to that question?r >> yes. o i'm from libya and more from libya the last year than ever before.by wea live in a continuum of american-arab-libyan, etc., libyan-american, and we, you know, we waver. it kind of switches.swit if we were to measure our identity meter or, we know that as arabs -- americans of arab descent, it changes. but the last few months it's been watching tunisia, watching egypt, being very proud of one's heritage and one's people and of libya specifically so. i've been living on facebook the last few months. the difficult part perhaps withi libya is, of course, it's a military conflict now. and it is a military conflict between civilian population that had

states are fast becoming vicious civil wars is the arab awakening less about democracy promotion and more against a stifling status quo and police states and what are the chances the arab awakening will be hijacked by new strongman and get taken. in. the past not the uprisings in the arab world i'm joined by david price jones and florence he is senior editor of the national review and author of treason of the heart from thomas paine the kim philby in washington we have omar baddoor he is a political scientist and human rights activist and in austin we cross to alan cooperman he's an associate professor at the l.b.j. school of public affairs of the university of texas all right gentlemen this is cross talk and i mean cross talk rules and take you can jump in anytime you want if i could go to david first in florence is the is the arab awakening as it's being called turning into an arab nightmare as i started out the program three of these countries that are undergoing. social strife it's turning into a vicious civil war and democracy seems to be more of a distant ideal if it ever was.

it was an arab seaside town. when the oil boom started attracting immigrants across the muslim world and the call of wealth or possible wealth from 50 reach the mountains of baluchistan coerces the region you will find on many maps. it's a country that no longer exists, but it goes into three different -- it's the people sprawls over three countries, iran, pakistan and afghanistan. in the street without a country migrated from any. others are like his father, kahlid shaikh mohammed spot there, looking for money, a new life. his father comes in very quickly burchett, the peddler because he mom, preaching a radical version of islam, more or less at this time a new two people each people. he encounters this ideology in kuwait, most likely through saturday sources, what people loosely call the hobbits are, which were properly is no nice office on. this radical form of islam in the 1950s, 1960s is immensely appealing in that section of kuwait for two reasons. one, most of the rest there in the kuwaitis. they are displ

on the fence is it all about libya now with understanding the ongoing changes often violent in the arab middle east what makes yemen in syria different from what's going on it's. a charmer in here broadcasting live from washington d.c. coming up today on the big picture. looks. at. wealthy british scientists. like. markets why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with much stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our cheap the emission free cretaceous three cents for charges free. arrangements free risk free. free. the old free blog counseling videos for your media projects a free media tart teton tom. more news today is once again flared up. these are the images go girl has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to look for a shelter all day. well the. real news the latest in science and technology from around russia. we've got the future covered. live. live. kick. start. following a welcome to cross talk computer lavelle is it all about libya now when understanding the ongoing changes often

we urge you to sport how is this an arab-american community support the arab uprising?this is what i would like to mention? what are we really doing? for example, from the usaid perspective, are we supporting education? for example, to strength and democratic systems in the arab world. i worked in egypt for two years. i know what level the education system is not. the other thing, are we supporting women? the role of women in yemen and egypt has been extremely amazing. i mean, when she went to prison, she really turned up the whole situation. what are we doing to really educate these women about how to be better democratic forces? there was a question earlier about whether the arab world is ready for democracy. of course they are. are we ready for them to be a democratic nation? but then, my question is, democracy is an exercise. democracy doesn't develop overnight either. if we want these countries to be strong democracies, we have to help them. it's our role as arab-americans to really do this kind of technology transfer. i wanted to ask mr. ansara if they would suppo

arab students. he didn't even mix with the non-kuwaiti arabs. after a semester, he transfers to north carolina a & t, jesse jackson's al ma mater. he socializes with 20 people, all of them are arab and muslim. but he emerges as someone who's known on campus as a mullah. technically he's not a mullah but what they mean by that he's an enforcer. he makes sure that the other students in his group do not violate these very small very obscure tenets of islamic law or what they believe to be islamic law. for example, you know, the cuff of your pants can never cover your ankle. it's forbidden to wear shorts because they expose the knee and so on. so even when they would go to the gym and work out, they would be fully covered. enforcing all these differences kept them apart from the american college campus. i met a number of people, almost a dozen in fact, who went to college with ksm who remember him. and by the way, they mostly remember him fondly. he was a comedian. he was a member of an informal student

of the muslim brotherhood we empowered christian arabs and the arab world and not let them be subject to all of the future. and my question is to comment on the role from the future role of the arab league. how can the arab league degette alter its fear that have a lot of influence hall, they can get over their fear because i think they can play in major role in the u.s. and the peace process ultimately for a foreign policy. thank you. >> [inaudible] people who beat their regime docking plight when you go home just remember this guy here, everybody knows -- change the screen. >> everybody knows the story. i'm not going to repeat it. the question is what happened with the situation is not the general situation itself it's covering what is the real problem that there's not a good grass-roots funding base having to get their funding from individuals who have influence over what decisions get made and also they have to be with embassies and influential people and which puts them at a very difficult conditions year. on the one hand they have to represent us and they've done a great job ove

how can arab-americans help the egyptian revolution? >> the arab-americans are egyptians. they are all egyptians. we really consider that the middle east is somehow affected by the egyptian history and by the egyptian scientific discoveries 2000 years ago. we never really considered ourselves as egyptians. we consider ourselves as part of the entire region. you could be syrian, lebanese, egyptian. we are all the same people. but what we would like to say to the rest of the arab-americans in this country, that come and visit. come and visit egypt. we are part of the revolution. ring your children. bring your families, bring your friends. come and see with your own eyes what the newspaper and cnn cannot translate. i guarantee you are going to see different egyptians today. they are very proud. they are more lovable than ever before. even their jokes have been now millions of jokes every day. the taxicab driver will smile at your face and ask you where are you going? tell him i would like to give you tips and he will look at you and say we don't want tips anymore, thank you,

middle east what makes yemen in syria different from what's going on in tripoli and is the arab spring with all its hope for change only worthy for some in this volatile region. can. still see. the cross-talk protests in the arab world i'm joined by nineteen shaadi in london he's an associate fellow middle east and north africa program at chapman house also in london we go to investor mohammed who bought the he's an opposition activists and a former advisor to yemeni prime ministers and in tel aviv we crossed the arc of law and he's a journalist for the jerusalem post all right gentlemen this is cross talk and that means you can jump in anytime you want on now do you might like to go to you first and go to the newest news here we still have members of nato really pushing very hard for some form of intervention that's left unsaid right now in syria here and i started out by the program are we all looking at these events now and like yemen in syria through the lens of libya is it a mistake to do that or is it correct to do that because we have to remember resolution nine hundred seventy

spring is turning into a very hot arab summer and we're not seeing democracy and i do not share the optimism of one or both of your of my colleagues today i think that this is going to be bad for the people of those countries and i think it's going to be certainly bad for the american national interest david if i can go to you is it really is i'm surprised if i might as well go ahead jump in as a not surprised to find myself described as an optimist of the what i said i think part of the trouble is that the people who want freedom want it but then how to achieve it and that's not very optimistic if there was a civic society if there were parties if there were genuine representatives if there was some form of real electoral system whereby you could. have representation . accountability but they're not. these things what you actually have is a lot of good feeling on the street but there's no way to institutionalize that good feeling and therefore i wonder really how thinks it's going to happen i want to. go to you isn't this really just about learning curve in political technologies b

in other parts of the arab world the demands are similar.they are all fighting for their share of political power and econom opportuni butften experice repression and violent crackdowns. we have more on the struggle in several of these countries. >> this algerian man -- the entire arabs -- arab world has been on the streets calling for more freedom. and according to the u.s. human rights organization, countries acro north africa and the middle east have poor records of human rights. only three of the 16 arab countries -- in every other nation the basic rights are absent. the good rating is because of mohammad the sixth. he puts political and economic reform. the minorities have been given more rights. freedoms in tunisia have increased significantly since the overthrow of bin-ali. the death penalty has been abolished. huyman rights groups cnan work freely. in egypt the situation is more difficult. emergency rule remains place. amnesty international says violence is still used against protesters. egyptian woman played a part in this springs p

the peace process is the arab spring. the arab spring is the peace process and it's going to take us a long time to get there but unless the arab spring spreads, i don't see any -- these are the most brilliant. >> charlie: what's the likelihood that the arab spring process even in terms how far a certain level of non-violence goes to the palestinians? >> nothing could send the arab spring into reverse more quickly than another flare up whether in lebanon or in gaza. if you got another war involving israel on one of those fronts, nothing will be more radicalizing and more disruptive to any progress than that. so as long as this problem festers that problem is always there. i do agree with tom, i must say. we had so many new ideas in the middle east in the la six months, and this is the most stirring event of the 21st century. doesn't mean it's gng to go -- >> charlie: can't it happen with israel. >> charley, again, what i'm seeing from the israeli point of view, i don't know if they're a positive partner. i don't know. isr

it's right under the densely populated arab neighborhood of silwan.ccording to the clinton parameters, silwan should be part of a palestinian state. to remedy that, organizations that move jewish settlers into arab areas have infiltrated silwan. under heavy security, a group of settlers live in this seven- story building. they've barricaded themselves in and refuse to leave. with some 450 jews living among tens of thousands of arabs, silwan is now at the center of the battle to keep all of jerusalem under israeli control. so how does the city of david tie into this? well, while a government agency oversees the excavations, the dig and the site are largely funded and run by something called el'ad. doron speilman works for el'ad, which claims they're not a settlers' organization, though people we spoke to say they are. >> spielman: i think that it would be correct to call us an organization who believes deeply in the history of jerusalem. >> stahl: so it's all archaeology? >> spielman: archaeology and rebuilding a jewish neighborhood. >> stahl: so el'ad

we'll be talking about whether it's an arab spring for women, too. >> welcome back. the freedoms so many women in the west have enjoyed for decades, from university educations to simply wearing what they want in public remained forbidden to millions in the arab world. as part of this week's "in-depth" focus on ume rights, we take a look at the situation for women in those countries. our special report follows the stories of three women in egypt, tunisia and morocco struggling to lead the lives they want to lead, not the ones spribbed buy fathers, husbands or brothers. in morrowco women have enjoyed a boost in legal protections over the last year. in egypt they are hoping for the promise else of the revolution to be fulfilled. but we start off in tunisia, whe the arab sin that is still sweeping the region began. tunisia has long stood at the forefront of arab nations in guaranteeing equal rights for women, especially in education and in the workplace. the political party leader in tunisia has been campaigning for equal rights for women since her university days. four

some of those villages being repopulated by arabs. home to what? you know, this is going to be forcible return, and it is not going to go at all well. you know, we just hear really, really dreadful stories about the consequences of this and where it will lead. and, unfortunately, as ever, you know, it seems like a great idea to the diplomats, you know, who live in a higher universe to try and get these two adversaries speaking to each other again and not threatening each other with war. but in real terms there are people on the ground who are going to suffer massively. >> do you, i hope i can ask this question. [inaudible] do you think we can expect it will take place and possibly -- [inaudible] [audio difficulty] what can we expect in terms of a legacy of continuity, really, because who will try who for various human rights violations in a situation like that? if two countries exist, then no one will move forward on prosecution -- [inaudible] is that, how do you see that situation? >> yes, absolutely. stalemate. um, you know, there's something i s

that was the people who self-identify as arabs who live in khartoum and along the nile. since then it has been a story of the hegemony of the ethnic groups that define themselves as arab along the nile against everybody else. it is the story of marginalization. it is also a story of climate change because the sahara along here is moving south, in some places as much as 20 miles a year and other places as much as three miles a year. this is having an extraordinary domino effect and a lot of the ethnic groups who are living here, mainly self identified arab, having to move and they're moving onto land occupied by people who self identified as black african. now you are going to get bored of me saying people self-identify but here's what i have learned. in my time working in 12 different afghan countries. does not matter the content of your blood. there is intermarriage everywhere. what matters is how you self-identify in part of the story with sudan is unfortunately the racism of some of the air of groups who consider themselves to be racially superior to the black african

following the cyber war that incited revolutiona arary movem across the arab world.evolt began here in hue necia where the people overthrew a dictator that ruled for 23 years, ben ali. we're out in front of former president ben ali's homes that's now just been absolutely trashed. tiles off the sidewalk. everything here is just been destroyed. th >> this is the expression of 23 years of rage. >> reporter: they lit the place on fire. rubble everywhere. tore out the wiring. obviously completely destroyed. they even knocked out the ceiling. looters in this case had a bit of a sense of humor. if you look over here, they drew pictures of ben ali on the wall. called him "the robber." overthrowing that robber was the goal of a handful of bloggers driving the revolution. what is the number one enemy to a dictator? >> freedom of expression. >> reporter: two tunisians at the center of the arab blogosphere. in a country where the state controlled the media, they offered a simple but powerful alternative. an independent source of information. >> what we are doing is we write what

the arab spring changed everything. on december 17, separate from any political or religious movement, we saw a sawtunisian set himself on fire. little by little we witness the played at -- the flames of freedom throughout the region. this all the arab world enter into a process of openness, of accelerated global change that is a sign of our times. we must not be afraid of th is. he is the fruit of extraordinary courage -- it is the fruit of extraordinary courage. how could we forget the price of democracy? we fought side by side to defend it. how could our two countries which together fought for freedom in the darkest hours of whenhistory of mankind, one rises up against barbarity, when one defends the tyrant. we must not be afraid of the arab spring because it is that fruit of the tremendous popular momentum. it does not belong to any policy or religion. it is not part of any movement. it is the cry of revolt of young people with no future prospects, young people dreaming of a more just in modern society -- just and m

world arab rather than persian and sunni but in both lebanon and iraq there are two countries where there are a substantial number of shia muslims. they have to make a majority in iraq and then minority in of lebanon, so lebanon shia were willing to accept the i iranian exchange for acting out iran policy against lebanese christians and sunnis and the israelis said it is a mutual win-win relationship for both of them because the iranian revolutionary guard corps basically has a forward base on the mediterranean. >> host: after all, the shia of southern lebanon, where they are concentrated, had welcomed the israelis when they came in a couple of years earlier. >> guest: yes, they did. that is one of the ironies of the situation and the reason the lebanese shia welcomed the invasion is because the she has in south lebanon were being uncovered by yasser arafat's palestinian state which was sunni, a foreign implant as well as sunni and the plo was rather come some trust with the shia that lived in south lebanon and the plo putting them in danger by using lebanon as a launching pad for i