February 19, 2012 | 3:11 am

February 19, 2012

Posted by Shmuel Rosner

Mohamed Mursi, the head of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's Justice and Freedom Party. (Photo: Reuters)

A long march

The Economist takes a critical look at the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood across the Arab world, as evolve from outlawed extremists to moderate rulers.

…the Egyptian Brotherhood is finding that proximity to power carries a heavy tax. They are not alone. Nearly everywhere that Ikhwan-related parties have left opposition politics and entered government they have faced similar headwinds.

Muslim Brotherhood Looks West in Bid to Revive Egyptian Economy

Charles Levison of the Wall Street Journal examines the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s challenge of dealing with the West as it seeks to revive the country’s flagging economy.

The problem is that almost everyone’s analysis of the Egyptian economy is pretty grim right now. Short of cash, the military government turned to local banks for loans and began spending down Egypt’s $43.7 billion stockpile of foreign reserves. Those reserves now sit at $13.6 billion, less than three months’ worth of imports, according to the central bank.

How U.S.-Iranian Standoff Looks From Iran

There cannot be any real progress in U.S.-Iran nuclear talks while Tehran perceives Washington as a less than honest broker, argues Seyed Hossein Mousavian in an article for Bloomberg.

Both the U.S. and Iran have become prisoners of the past. They need to have a realistic assessment of potential areas where they could have common interests, such asAfghanistan, Iraq, security in the Persian Gulf, curbing drug trafficking, opposing al-Qaeda, and limiting the role of the Taliban. Unfortunately, the pursuit of these potential common interests has so far been hampered by a preoccupation with the nuclear file and the domestic political climate in both countries.

So You Want to Be Jerusalem Bureau Chief…

Writing in Foreign Policy, Ron Kampeas has some advice for Jewish journalists who find themselves reporting from Israel.

There has persisted among foreign correspondents, at least until recent years, a stigma associated with the notion that once in your pre-journalist existence you might have become conversant with the language of the Torah.

Sanctions And The Iranian People

An editorial in Voice of America says that the choice to ease the restrictions on Iran is in the hands of that country’s leadership.

The sanctions are consistent with the Obama Administration’s dual-track policy of applying pressure to encourage Iran’s leaders to engage with the West on Iran’s nuclear program and demonstrate that Iran’s nuclear activities are solely for peaceful purposes.  The alternative to addressing the international community’s concerns about its nuclear program is for Iran to face increasing pressure and isolation.

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