Visit the nearby by eco-sustainable farm last night, its run by a friendly bunch of expats including British, American, and various Austrians, Belgians and Dutch. An unnecessarily complicated batch of mulled wine was concocted from a clove-studded orange, brandy and an industrial-grade Chinese imitation of Merlot. Shortly after the concoction had been conceived, it mysteriously vanished into the chill, clear holy-land night. The eco-farmers, despite their friendly devil-may care attitude, are a greedy bunch of bastards when it comes to alcohol in all forms. Especially those which it is inadvisable for humans to ingest.
In the side of a hill, chiseled out of the stone, the farm has a small stone sauna, with a heavy camel hair rug for a door and heated by an old bread oven, covered in fist-sized rocks. Smoke filtered out and water was thrown, filling the room with steam. That little stone room outside the village of Beit Sahour, West of Bethlehem is the coolest place in the Middle East, in more ways then one.
In Tunisia, young men set themselves ablaze in protest of municipal bureaucracy almost a year ago in March, but until protesters began using cellphones, the web and specifically facebook to share images and ideas in early December, the revolution hadn't begun. Once it did however, the rest of North Africa and the Middle East woke up. The young and unemployed quickly lost their fear of authoritative governments heavy-handed punishments and went to work organizing, protesting and planning the same thing for the next day, the next week, the next month.
Night before last, Egypt's 30-year standing President Mubarak announced after weeks of protests shaking the streets of Egypt's cities, that he won't stand for reelection. It would be extremely patient of the Egyptian people wait that long.
In Jordan, King Abdullah II fired his government in the midst of protests.
In Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, also a thirty-year political fixture has said he'll step down in 2013.
Hell of a time to be in the Middle East, and it would be a hell of a thing to see if if ever sparked here. However, there's conflicting opinions, as there seems to always be in Palestine. The last couple of years have been relatively good visa vie Israel, occupation and the like. People do not necessarily want to risk that, when the backlash could be severe, and the potential for any real gains very small.
Palestinians seem content for the minute to watch what is happening in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan and Yemen. Particularly interesting for the situation here will be the resulting power shift in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood has been quietly supporting the revolution there from the sidelines. They've been outlawed from Egyptian politics for years, having to run for office as independents. However, they're very well regarded for their social programs domestically. Internationally, however, they're associated with the big T, for Errorism, because of links to significantly less moderate groups.
In any case, this change in political hegemony from their large neighbor across the Sinai is freaking out the Israeli right-wing who fear for their security considering they've allied themselves with Egypt's repressive and autocratic government for the past thirty years. And rightly so, the U.S. made the mistake of not backing Egypt's people quick enough, but when you've been giving an average of $2billion annually in military aid, to a country with growing food costs and shortages.
In any case, I've got very little idea what is going to happen in the coming weeks and months. If the revolution is successful, and a New Egyptian government is eventually put together then we may see an interesting shift in power and international relations here in the Middle East.
What I do know is that I'm safe and sound, slightly chilly, but at least I don't have snow up to my nipples.
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