February 5, 2012 | 6:26 am

Must Read, February 5, 2012

Posted by Shmuel Rosner

Newt Gingrich addresses a Las Vegas news conference after the Nevada caucus. (Photo: Reuters)

Newt’s very bad night

Not only did Gingrich suffer an anticipated loss in Nevada’s caucus, writes Steve Kornacki in Salon, but he also faces the abdication of super-sponsor Sheldon Adelson.

“Ultimately, this may be the biggest story to come out of Saturday night. It’s hard enough to see Gingrich bouncing back now, and if his chief patron turns off the spigot…”

Iran will strike back

Writing for CNN‘s Global Public Square blog, Geneive Abdo and Reza H. Akbari examine the statement by U.S. Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. that Iran would certainly fiercely retaliate to any strike on its nuclear facilities.

The recent pronouncements from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other Iranian officials should be taken seriously.  In November, Khamenei said: “Iran is not a nation to sit still and just observe threats from fragile materialist powers which are being eaten by worms from inside.”

Iran raid likely to drag in U.S. and hurt global economy

William Maclean of Reuters looks at the potential international impact of an Israeli strike on Iran.

[L]ongstanding U.S. and European assumptions about the consequences of an Israeli attack on Iran are being re-examined with greater urgency in Western capitals after repeated warnings by Israel that the chance of a peaceful resolution may be closing.

Egypt: Three scenarios

Abdel Monem Said of Asharq Alawsat sets out three paths for post-revolutionary Egypt to take, each strewn with its own pitfalls.

In this way, one year after the Egyptian revolution, and the so-called Arab Spring, the state of affairs have changed in an unprecedented manner which is not likely to reoccur in the future. What we came to know is that the early romance [of the revolution] has produced a reality that is not so romantic today.

Islam and Government: How It Can Be

Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations looks at future in which a long tradition of scholarship and government cooperation is revived.

Now, several Islamist movements find themselves in government and seem unsure how to respond to traditional Muslim scholarship that accepted secular rule. Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has had a fractured relationship with the Sunni al-Azhar seminary for more than five decades. What will happen now?

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