the Middle East — at the meeting point of the "clash of civilizations" between Islam and the West, as Huntington envisioned it, and at the same time, in the spinning "eye of the storm" of the clash of titans within Islam itself: between Sunni and Shi'ite, between tradition, extremism and terrorism on the one hand, and modernity and moderation on the other; between the dream of "past glory" and the vision of a "leap into the future’. And all of this is drenched in a lot of blood. ¢ This drama that has washed over the Arab world bears two lessons and one insight for us: The 1* lesson: "Be modest in prophecy". In particular, when it comes to the future. Mubarak for example had about 400,000 people at his disposal working in various security agencies in order to preemptively predict events such as those that took place at Tahrir Square. And he did not foresee the uprising. So HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_028888