April 22, 2012 | 4:36 am

April 22, 2012

Posted by Shmuel Rosner

A house in Sderot hit by a Qassam rocket fired from Gaza. (Photo: Reuters)

The Gulf and the Arab Spring

Mohamed Al-Rumaihi of The Majalla magazine examines why the uprisings ‎in the Arab world have not spread to the Gulf states.
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‎ There have been major differences between the radically-changed Arab regimes and the Gulf States. ‎In the Gulf, authority is not completely isolated from society; equally, means of oppression and terror ‎are not routinely adopted, and the states tend to favor persuasion. Incidents in Saudi Arabia are one ‎example: the authorities were coping with armed citizens even before the Arab Spring.‎

Let Iran Save Face ‎

Treating Iran as a regional power could be a more conducive step toward curbing ‎the Islamic Republic’s nuclear aspirations than sanctions and threats of military ‎action, writes Kevjn Lim in The Diplomat. ‎

Recognizing Iran as a responsible power in the region while gently muzzling its ‎nuclear ambitions allows its leaders to “save face,” more importantly. Often ‎regarded with a mixture of mirth and outright bewilderment in the West, this critical ‎concept has been one of the Orient’s historical determinants of war and peace.‎

From Sderot, an Open Letter to Gunter Grass
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Writing for PJ Media, Sderot resident David Farer invites Gunter Grass to visit his city ‎and see firsthand the damage of rocket fire by Iranian allies Hamas.‎

Iran actively helps the Hamas radical Islamists, whose only regret about terrifying ‎that little girl is that they did not kill her, her family, and all of her friends. The ‎Iranian friends of Hamas are now working on bigger and better rockets that can ‎carry the nuclear bombs Iran is developing. With these big rockets, the Iranians hope ‎to achieve what the little rockets Hamas uses on Sderot cannot: the extermination of ‎an entire people.‎

US can’t abandon the Mideast

In an opinion piece published by the Frontier Post, Jordan’s Prince Hassan bin Talal ‎argues that American disengagement would only exacerbate the problems of the ‎region. ‎

The euphoria generated by the “Arab awakening” cannot hide the fact that the Middle East is ‎as much of a mess as it ever was. In 2009, President Obama spoke in Cairo of how “while ‎America in the past has focused on oil and gas in this part of the world, we now seek a ‎broader engagement.” Such engagement, which we all hope for, cannot be sustained by ‎pivoting. American military disengagement from Iraq and Afghanistan is welcomed within the ‎Arab world. But other types of US engagement are still needed.  ‎

Secret freedom at Tel Aviv’s ‘Palestinian Queer Party’‎

Michal Shmulovich of the Times of Israel goes inside a clandestine haven for gay ‎Palestinians in Tel Aviv. ‎

It started about 10 years ago, originally taking place in Jerusalem on weekday ‎evenings, when some 40 or 50 Palestinian men from the area would gather. ‎The organizers moved it to Tel Aviv about five years ago, and now hundreds ‎show up each month. People travel from all over: Ramallah, East Jerusalem, ‎small Arab villages in northern Israel, Yafo, everywhere. Those traveling from ‎Ramallah have their own ways of getting into Israel – some of them ‎with official permits, but most of them without.‎

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