Last week, we saw several Arab rulers embark on limited political reforms in order to "preserve and not to overthrow" their rule. After days of protests, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak announced he would step down at the end of his term, as did Ali Saleh of Yemen. In Jordan, King Abdullah fired his cabinet and appointed a new prime minister. Even Syria's Bashar al-Assad agreed to allow local elections in order to pre-empt similar events.

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