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Daybreak: An Arab Spring?

Plus Barak out of Labor, Palin unrepentant, and more in the news

by
Marc Tracy
January 18, 2011
Sarah Palin apologizing for defending her use of ‘blood libel.’(Fox/Politico)
Sarah Palin apologizing for defending her use of ‘blood libel.’(Fox/Politico)

• Some are wondering if the overthrow of the despotic Tunisian president is the harbinger of people’s revolutions throughout the Arab world. [WP]

• Defense Minister Ehud Barak bolted the Labor Party, taking a few ministers with him, to form his own, smaller, centrist party while staying in the governing coalition. [NYT]

• Sarah Palin stood by her remarks on the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords while regretting her use of the phrase “blood libel.” Just kidding! She said her critics were “using anything they could gather out of [the] statement,” like, for example, its invocation, however inadvertant, of a centuries-old justification of violence against Jews. [AP/Vos Iz Neias?]

• Then again, maybe, per Jean-Marie Le Pen’s theory, I’m just crying wolf. [JTA]

• The Palestinian leadership continues to insist it will present an anti-settlement draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council. [JPost]

• Giffords’s breathing tube was removed as she continues to make progress, albeit while still in critical condition. [JPost]

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.