THE RULES OF THE GAME HAVE CHANGED: Freedom has enemies, a fact always startling to Americans. Today, they have struck in Israel and in Iraq, and many are dead. But this piece by David Brooks captures the new spirit in the Middle East, a shifting of the tectonic plates of human expectations, that may survive and even conquer the violence. He writes:
The head of the Syrian Press Syndicate told The Times on Thursday: "There's a new world out there and a new reality. You can no longer have business as usual."
Meanwhile in Palestine, after days of intense pressure, many of the old Arafat cronies are out of the interim Palestinian cabinet. Fresh, more competent administrators have been put in. "What you witnessed is the real democracy of the Palestinian people," Saeb Erakat said to Alan Cowell of The Times. As Danny Rubinstein observed in the pages of Ha'aretz, the rules of the game have changed.
This battle will never really end, but one can hope that the advantage at this moment lies with the warriors of freedom.
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