The Great Arab Revolt of 2011 has moved swiftly from the peaceful overthrow of autocrats in the nation-states of Tunisia and Egypt to brutal repression in the tribal societies of Libya, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen. Meanwhile, the wired youth bulge of the Middle East that brought change is dissipating into an impotent diaspora while the organized interests of the old regimes and the once-suppressed Islamists charge ahead to power. This section examines the revolt, the reaction and the power struggles in its aftermath. NPQ | Do you have any news from Misurata? LÉVY | Yes. This afternoon (March 24). From one of the city's teachers, whom I reached by phone. Gadhafi's mercenaries are firing on the hospital. Killing the wounded. The city dwellers no longer leave their homes for fear of being gunned down like rabbits by snipers. Blood is flowing in Misurata. NPQ | What does one do when the rebels go on the offensive under cover of the no-fly zone and then are caught on some front line, locked in battle? Does the coalition have to support them? LÉVY | It all depends on what you mean by "support." If it's sending troops on the ground to accomplish the Libyan revolution in the place of the Libyan people, no, that is not in the mandate voted by the United Nations, that is not what the National Council of Transition is requesting, and it is not what the president of the French Republic said to its emissaries at the Elysée. His words were quite clear and he hammered on them several times: "No one is going to come and accomplish your revolution in your place; the Libyan revolution belongs to the Libyan people and to them alone. We, the French, I can tell you we would have hated for this people or that to come and steal our 1789." On the other hand, we must arm the insurgents. Arm them and train them. I believe that is what the Egyptians are doing.And perhaps the French. NPQ | If France goes too far, won't you lose the legitimacy the support of the UN confers?LÉVY | This is what I am telling you: One of the major differences between this war, inevitable, and the war in Iraq, detestable, is the mandate of the United Nations, its absolutely legal framework. It would be regrettable to stray outside of this legal framework. And I believe France will not do so.NPQ | What about the faltering Arab League? LÉVY | I wouldn't say it has "faltered." All right, it's wavering a bit. You have a guy at the head of it, Amr Moussa, who has some political ulterior motives and who's playing both sides, it's true. But on the whole, the League is hanging on. Don't forget, it was the League that launched the first appeal to save the Libyan people from the predicted slaughter. And, at the time I'm speaking, fundamentally, it has not changed its position and thus still supports the allied operation. NPQ | Arabs seem at odds with the French effort to overthrow Gadhafi? Why? LÉVY | What Arabs? Not Arab public opinion, at any rate. The Egyptians, for example, the intense strength of the new Egypt, support their Libyan brothers, are stirred by them and suffe...
