Kesher Talk

Across the Arab world, there have been frequent protests against Israel, and against its ally and patron, the US -- protests that, like one today in Beirut, Lebanon, have grown in size and fury each day the West Bank offensive continues. This public outrage has spread even to the normally quiet Persian Gulf Emirate of Bahrain, the site of a major US Navy base. ... Outside her Bahrain apartment today, American schoolteacher Kim Guodace couldn't miss the writing on the wall. It was left behind by the crowd that stormed through her neighborhood last week on its way to the American Embassy.

Guodace was shown saying, "It looked actually like the embassy had been bombed, because there was huge black smoke pouring out of the front."

She watched from her rooftop as the angry mob moved on the embassy compound with rocks and Molotov cocktails, driven back, finally, by tear gas and rubber bullets -- a lot more than Kim bargained for when she came here for the simple adventure of living abroad. ... Small and secure, this island nation has had a reputation for stability. Just over a month ago, President Bush called Bahrain America's main ally outside NATO. It's the home of the Fifth Fleet, a partner in the war in Afghanistan, one of the last places in the world the US would want to strain a friendship. When the cycle of protests began here a week ago, there was official encouragement from Bahrain's monarch. Now the King has warned his people their demonstrations should be 'peaceful and civilized.' What he's not told them to do is stop. There's little doubt the government could quiet the streets if it wanted to, but the anger's real, and the demonstrations make a point.

posted by Howard @ 4/12/2002 10:04:47 AM