A two-day workshop discussing the latest developments in North Africa and the Arab countries...began in Istanbul...A new page has been turned in the Arab world and consecutive public revolutions have destroyed many of the myths about Arabs in the minds of the people.

A longstanding complaint of Israeli about Arab leaders is that they speak with a forked tongue; that they speak one language to their subjects, and another to the outside world. One of the most important tasks of public diplomacy attaches at Israeli missions abroad has been to distribute translations of the Arabic press.

Turkish President Abdullah Gül said on Wednesday that Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan needed to act as "six states with one nation" and display solidarity with each other.

Even with its demographic and geographic limits, Qatar has several assets that turn out to be in short supply elsewhere in the Middle East and to be of strategic value, given the tumult in the region. First, it is home to al-Jazeera, the Arabic-language news network that has transformed how Arabs get their news. Al-Jazeera gives Qatar “soft power” well beyond its size.

Throughout the Middle East, protestors have employed Facebook, Twitter...and other technologies to organize and spread news at home and to the outside world. Democratic governments aren’t the only ones reacting to the Arab Spring. Autocracies, including China, which hosts the world’s most sophisticated online control regime, are drawing their own lessons.

From the very beginning of the revolution, street art and artists played a significant role in the protests...perhaps the uncensored, tongue-in-cheek, political commentary of Ganzeer and other street artists is just what is called for to help Egyptians make sense of the new world they live in — and their ability to make a mark on it.

Sean Penn was among the demonstrators at a protest in Egypt on Friday calling for a faster transition to democracy. The two-time Oscar winner arrived in north Africa at the invitation of Egyptian film star Khaled El Nabawy as part of efforts to show the country is once again safe for tourists following the revolution earlier this year.

The Arab Spring has diminished Iran's ability to wield soft power in the region. Instead, the momentum has shifted to Turkey, which has not been shy about stealing pages from the Iranian playbook for appealing to the Arab street.