Nakba Day Protests & The Arab Spring

Over the weekend, Palestinians marched on Israeli border crossings with Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to commemorate the beginning of the refugee crisis that resulted from the first war with Israel. Andrew Exum writes that the protests provided a media respite for Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and other regional autocrats under popular pressure. Foreign Policy blogger Blake Hounshell agrees, adding that the protests served to remind Israel of Syria’s role in regional stability. The BBC’s Jim Muir takes Exum’s speculations on Syrian designs further, noting that while Jordan has a much larger Palestinian refugee population, it did not allow any of them to get to the border. Aluf Benn writes in Haaretz that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will use the incident to strengthen his position toward international negotiations.