Marwan Muasher, former foreign minister and deputy prime minister of Jordan, is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace writes in the Guardian that it's time for Arab leaders to learn the lessons of Tunisia and Egypt--three, in particular.
The first is that it is easy to point the finger at high prices and unemployment as the principal reasons for the protests, but it's not that simple. Several countries are already taking short-term steps, including subsidies for basic staples and better salaries, but this won't work for ever. Real solutions need to improve democratic and political rights, fight corruption, and defend the rule of law.
The second point that everyone needs to realise is that no country is safe – all Arab countries are under threat. There's a tendency among Arab leaders and their advisers to take comfort in the differences that their countries have with Tunisia and to assume that kneejerk handouts can easily deal with economic grievances. But this is a false sense of safety and obviously doesn't hold with the unfolding events in Egypt.
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And the last lesson is that old arguments rationalising tight controls on politics to keep Islamists from gaining power are fundamentally undermined. Governments use the fear of Islam to justify closed political systems that clamp down on all forms of discontent.
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