With armies of reporters from Al Jazeera and Alhurra and slews of other news media organizations covering the Middle East, one wonders how the seeds of anti-government sentiment in Egypt were not detected before streets were filled with protesters and now police violence and death.

With armies of reporters from Al Jazeera and Alhurra and slews of other news media organizations covering the Middle East, one wonders how the seeds of anti-government sentiment in Egypt were not detected before streets were filled with protesters and now police violence and death. Diplomats in Washington and other world capitals seem to have been similarly blindsided.

Cries for President Hosni Mubarak's ouster in Egypt are being echoed in Jordan with antigovernment protests and a "day of rage" planned for Syria this Friday. But in the Palestinian territories, it's the silence that is most notable.

Those who said that 'winds of change' were blowing through the Middle East were right. The past few weeks have seen a stunning series of political shifts in response to widespread discontent and popular opposition that once went unacknowledged.

As the number of young people in South Africa increases and access to the Internet improves, so too will access to the kind of resistance we’re witnessing in Egypt and Tunisia, writes guest blogger Khadija Patel.

Leaders around the globe joined a chorus of condemnation Wednesday over the eruption of violence in Cairo as embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak struggled to maintain his grip on power.

There is an old joke in the Middle East that goes like this: One of Hosni Mubarak's advisers finally gets the courage to say, "Mr. President, maybe it's time to think about your farewell address to the Egyptian people." Mubarak looks at the adviser and asks, "Why? Where are they going?" In reality, Mubarak got the message loud and clear.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who famously compares ruling Yemen to "dancing on the heads of snakes", tapped into the restive mood of the Arab world today by announcing that he would not stand for re-election in 2013. Skepticism may well be in order.