With Internet-organized protest movements sweeping the Arab world, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is trying his hand at social networking by posting a request on his Facebook page aimed at young Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, asking for suggestions as to who should fill the seats of the new cabinet that he must form in less than six weeks.

"We appreciate the role of the youth and their participation in making this decision, they play a major role in our march toward freedom," said Fayyad.

Fayyad dissolved his Cabinet on Feb. 14, amid fears that the unrest would soon spread to the West Bank. As a result of the uprisings, the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank, controlled by Fatah, is now trying to return to the negotiating table with rival Palestinian faction Hamas, which controls Gaza, to form a unity government. Just days before, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced the PA will hold long-overdue elections by September.

The Hamas-led government in Gaza has yet to confirm their participation, seeking confirmation it members will be allowed to campaign freely in the West Bank.

Fayyad's social networking overture generated an almost instantaneous response, as nearly a thousand Palestinians voiced their opinion just hours later, many calling for increased democracy:

"We want new, fresh faces that are qualified and educated, and have a solid reputation, " commented Haitham Wafi, "Not officials that just want to appear on television."

Omar Adas wrote: "I have faith in this experiment using Facebook to hear our voices, and I hope that you, Mr. Fayyad, will give it enough time to prove useful."

Others were not as positive.

"Free elections will do, dear Fayyad, but apparently those who decide our destiny were not so happy with the results of that," said Hamza Abusalsah. "Claiming we are a true democracy is deluding," he said.

He was referring to the 2006 legislative council elections, in which Hamas won a majority, but was threatened with sanctions by the U.S. and other western powers due to its refusal to recognize Israel or renounce violent tactics. Hamas was sanctioned -- there has been a strict blockade of Gaza implemented by Israel and supported by the Quartet -- the U.S., E.U., U.N., and Russia.

Fayyad's respondents also expressed anger at the blockade:

"I own a clothing store in Gaza City and my family has reached the point of hunger, because you Fatah and the brothers of Hamas are so stuck on your chairs," said Abo Abdalla Alaa from Gaza.  "Please take care of us in Gaza," he wrote.

Fayyad also posted a YouTube video of a brief speech from his Ramallah office in which he "presents practical ideas to regain national unity."

"You will have one government for Gaza and the West Bank, which has one mission to manage the affairs of the people and the country," said Fayyad, asserting the most essential step to ending the bitter division between the factions would be for Hamas to retain responsibility for security in Gaza, but under an official framework.

Unity is clearly a high priority for Fayyad's Facebook respondents. Dania Elwan from the West bank wrote, "Our only demand is that you end the division between Fatah  and Hamas, and form a unity government between the West Bank and Gaza."

Other commenters focused on internal political reform.

"The most important priority to is professionalize public institutions, to prove there is change and to better serve citizens," wrote Mahmoud Amer.

Raef Sharab from Gaza wrote, "We would like to see people from Gaza fill the cabinet posts that are not from the previous government, and the interior ministry must be led by a senior military official."

Fayyad, with his eye on the presidency, is looking to demonstrate that he is a reformist who can deliver between Fatah and Hamas. His new online presence is a nod toward transparency from a government that many see as corrupt and unaccountable. Fayyad also clearly prefers for Palestinians to vent their frustrations on Facebook rather than on the streets.

Erica Silverman, is a reporter for the U.N. news agency IRIN in the Palestinian Territories and Israel.

Here's the video of a Bloggingheads discussion I had Friday with Issandr el-Amrani, an FP contributor who now writes for the Economist and various other outlets, about the wave of  revolutions now sweeping the Arab world. Issandr is one of the most knowledgable people I know when it comes to Middle East politics, and his thoughts are well worth your time.

Check it out:

In case there were any remaining question that Seif al-Islam Qaddafi, the scion of Libya's fast-fading leader, is not exactly the brightest star in the galaxy, he dispelled those doubts today by appearing on the Al-Arabiya satellite channel to declare that "everything is normal" in Tripoli even as news outlets reported on growing signs that the Qaddafi family is losing its grip on Libya.

Earlier this week, Seif had invited foreign journalists to the Libyan capital so they could see for themselves just how wonderfully the Qaddafis were handling what he downplayed as the work of foreign-backed, pill-popping Al Qaeda terrorists bent on Libya's destruction.

But correspondents for both Al Arabiya and the New  York Times, two news outlets that took up his invitation, managed to break away for their minders and report that all was not, in fact, under control.

The Times' David Kirkpatrick "discovered blocks of the city in open revolt" and spoke with eyewitnesses who told of "snipers and antiaircraft guns firing at unarmed civilians, and security forces were removing the dead and wounded from streets and hospitals, apparently in an effort to hide the mounting toll." Al Arabiya reported that Qaddafi's security forces appeared to be abandoning Tripoli's streets to the rebels. And the Associated Press relayed word that the Libyan regime "passed out guns to civilian supporters, set up checkpoints Saturday and sent armed patrols roving the terrorized capital."

Recent reports from eastern Libya, where Western news organizations have had correspondents for days now, make it clear that the Qaddafis have lost control of everywhere east of Ajbadiya, some 850 kilometers from Tripoli, while the opposition has held onto Misurata, the country's third-largest city, and is closing in on the capital from the west as well. The Qaddafis still have plenty of firepower in Sirt, their home base, and in Tripoli, but their room for maneuver is shrinking rapidly.

So, what was Seif thinking?

Perhaps he thought that the regime really could control the flow of information, present a cleaned-up Potemkin village inside the capital, and earn some goodwill from foreign news organizations by appearing to be cooperative. But nobody's buying the spin, and newspapers and satellite channels have become extremely sophisticated in how they leverage citizen networks in difficult reporting environments. Libyans inside the country are still, miraculously, risking their lives to take gritty cell-phone videos and upload them to Facebook or other social networking sites, where Libyan exiles pick them up, translate and provide context, and pass them along to a broader audience. Activists and journalists have been using tools like Skype to communicate directly with sources in and around Tripoli, and then spreading the news quickly on Twitter.

So, even if Kirkpatrick were stuck being driven around by government minders who only showed him what they wanted him to see, his colleagues in Benghazi and Cairo would still be able to get the real story from brave Libyan eyewitnesses who want the world to hear their story.

Unfortunately for Seif, Kirkpatrick managed to go a step beyond that and even managed to speak with some anti-Qaddafi folks in person:

[A]t another stop, in the neighborhood of Tajoura, journalists stumbled almost accidentally into a block cordoned off by makeshift barriers where dozens of residents were eager to talk about a week of what they said were peaceful protests crushed by Colonel Qaddafi’s security forces with overwhelming, deadly and random force.

A middle-age business owner, who identified himself only as Turkey, said that the demonstrations there had begun last Sunday, when thousands of protesters inspired by the uprising in the east had marched toward the capital’s central Green Square. He said the police had dispersed the crowd with tear gas and then bullets, killing a man named Issa Hatey. [...]

Asked why he and his neighbors were rising up now, after living under Colonel Qaddafi for 42 years, Mr. Turkey, 46, shrugged. “No one can tell the time,” he said. After forty years of pressure, “you explode.” Two funerals were taking place nearby for those who died on Friday, and he said they expected another big protest on Sunday. 

It seems hard to imagine the regime can hold out much longer, given how quickly the information walls are coming down, but let's not forget that the Qaddafis have said repeatedly and emphatically that they will fight to the death. Their loyalists have every reason to believe that the rebels -- who say they are preparing to march on Tripoli and liberate the city even if it takes "pilots who are ready to crash their planes in a suicidal way" -- will exact furious retribution after 42 years of tyranny. Expect them to go down swinging.

Libyan embassy staff raise the pre-Muammar al-Qaddafi flag at the Libyan ambassador's residence in Washington on February 25, 2011. Ambassador Ali Aujali resigned his post February 22.

The Turkish opposition is criticizing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his relative silence on events in Libya saying he is “doing well by the award” given to him by Muammar al-Qaddafi last November. If current events continue the way they've been going, it looks like Erdogan may have the dubious honor of being the last recipient of that particular award.

The "Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights" (check out the flash-tastic early-90s style website) is one of the stranger prizes around. Past recipients have included everyone from Nelson Mandela to Louis Farrakhan to Qaddafi fan-boys Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega as well as some more unexpected choices like Coptic Pope Shenouda III, former Maltese Prime Minister Dom Mintoff and "the libraries of Timbuktu." The children of Palestine, children of Bosnia, and children of Iraq are also past winners. 

The prize is worth $250,000, though I'm assuming the children didn't all share that. 

Irish voters head to the polls today for a national election that is expected to bring to an end to the rule of the Fianna Fail party, which has been in power for 60 of the last 80 years. (See Alex Massie's preview on the site today.) The vote comes amidst a time of spiralling economic turmoil for the country. As if an 11 percent GDP decline and 13 percent unemployment aren't bad enough, Ireland also stands to take a hit if oil supplies from Libya are further disrupted, as this chart from the Economist -- via RealClearWorld --  makes clear: 

In terms of total volume of imports, Italy is by far the leader, according to the Economist, bringing in more than 376,000 barrels per day. 

Hat tip: FP alum Kayvan Farzaneh

A number of commentators have wondered in recent days whether Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez would weigh in on the difficulties facing his old friend Muammar al-Qaddafi. Unlike his counterpart Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Chavez has been uncharacteristiaclly reserved as the man he once called the Simon Bolivar of Libya slowly loses control of his country. 

This morning, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro weighed in, echoing a recent column by Fidel Castro suggesting that the turmoil is just a pretext for a Western invasion of Libya. 

Today on Twitter, Chavez broke his silence to back up the foreign minister (roughly translated):

Go Chancellor Nicholas: Give another lesson to the pitiyanqui far right! Viva Libya and its independence! Qaddafi is facing a civil war!!

(Pitiyanqui is one of Chavez's insults of choice for political opponents.)