• The final results of Egypt’s parliamentary elections are out. In first place is the Muslim Brotherhood’s party, with a whopping 47 percent of the vote; the Salafist party got its own 25 percent. [WP]
• The Arab League proposed an ambitious plan for Syria that would involve President Assad stepping down in a matter of weeks, to be replaced by a national unity government. [NYT]
• The U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier, made a routine trip into the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz without incident—the first to do so since Iran’s threats. [DPA/Haaretz]
• Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, (Jewish) Democrat from Arizona, will resign to focus on her recovery from being shot in the head a year ago. [NYT The Caucus]
• Jackson Diehl argues that Turkey’s Islamist, anti-Israel government has also been an important U.S. ally and represents “the new normal” for the region that can’t be wished or denounced away. [WP]
• Reports have it that the United States is considering shutting down its embassy in Damascus, in part out of security concerns. Marc Lynch hopes it can be kept open and Ambassador Robert Ford on the job. [FP The Middle East Channel]
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.
