Arabs celebrated the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak on Friday 11 February and praised the resolve and pluckiness of the protesters, the Egyptians masses, and expressed the hope that their own demands for change now reverberate throughout the Middle East.
They set off fireworks and gunshots in the skies of the Lebanese capital Beirut and the Gaza Strip and the city of Sana'aa, Yemen. While over in the rich Gulf Arab states celebrations were more hushed for this second dictator departure in the space of a month.
And the rule of Mubarak, whose 30 year reign came to a final end Friday, February 11, 2011 after 18 days of protests across Egypt. Mubarak's followed swiftly on the heels of the fall of former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali - who ruled his country for a substantial amount of time.
While protests have sparked serious paranoia in leaders from the Pacific to the Gulf they have raised serious admiration from many of the Arab citizens who found it hard to imagine that they would ever have their destiny in their own hands as it looked this Friday.
