Two weeks into Israel's housing protest, demonstrations are sweeping the country. More than 150,000 people took part in protests nationwide calling for socioeconomic change and demanding "social justice." And what started with the odd tent has become the summer of Israeli discontent.

Young Israelis feel they are victims of the country's strong economy and decades of security-heavy priorities. The Israeli economy boomed, but its young middle class has bombed, caving under price hikes, taxation and increasingly privatized public services such as health, education and child care. The leadership admits there are problems but say protesters' complaints are exaggerated.

The economic trend was no accident, protesters say, but a calculated economic ideology coupled with conservative politics. Decentralizing Israel's economy was necessary but privatization has run amok, critics say, with the government outsourcing its commitments to the majority of its citizens, who now demand government reaffirm its vows to the greater public.

"Re-vo-lu-tion!" cries bounced off walls in Tel-Aviv, Beersheva, Haifa and other towns Saturday night. 

So here's a Revolution 101, an incomplete dictionary to the cousin of the Arab Spring: the Israeli Summer. Naturally, there are millions of possible definitions.

A is for Arabs. It took some time, but Arab citizens of Israel joined the protests. Chronic under-budgeting has left many in the lower rungs of the country's socioeconomic ladder with more than half below the poverty line and a shortage of 60,000 housing units in the sector comprising 20% of Israeli society. A rare opportunity to join a social cause striving to be inclusive, not exclusive.

B is for Babies. Baby products and child care are too expensive, keeping women from professional development and young families in constant debt. Thousands marched with strollers and baby carriages last week, demanding, among other things, work schedules that are better synchronized with child-care calendars so parents can actually work.

C is for Competition. There is none, protesters say, that's why prices are high. 80% of the nation's economy is controlled by a few dozen powerful family empires who prevent real competition.

A young woman turns up dead. Her husband is held for a few days, then released. Police have no other suspects. Murmurs of "family honor" are heard -- and the news races on, reluctant to deal with a painful issue: the killing of women in Arab society.

Until now.

A few years ago, Duah Fares was within reach of a dream as a finalist in a local beauty pageant. Not everyone was proud of the groundbreaking model who changed her name to the less ethnically conspicuous "Angelina." As the swimsuit stage of the competition neared, displeasure over the break from tradition became heavy pressure and Fares withdrew from the competition when it became clear that her life was in danger.

Her younger sister, Jamila, was also an aspiring beauty pageant contestant; she too changed her name to the more cosmopolitan "Maya" before taking a safer path of marriage and a job in a shop. It wasn't safer. Maya, 21, is the last statistic in a grim tally.

Most of the 35 women murdered in Israel since the beginning of 2010 were killed by close relatives. Sixteen of them were Arab women, sadly over-represented given that their community makes up 20% of Israeli society.

The major challenge facing Arab states transitioning from totalitarian regimes to democracy is how to manage social expenditure: that is, state spending on health, education, direct subsidies to poor citizens, cash support for poor families, pensions and social security for those working in the private sector. Even though these states face different situations, such spending shares a number of traits.

The amounts spent on social expenditures -- about 40% to 50% of GDP -- are high in the Arab states, including Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. This means that the chances of allocating additional resources for social expenses are slim.

In addition, social spending is distinguished by low levels of competency, especially in healthcare and education -- the two sectors that capture the greatest share of social expenditure. These sectors are usually not subject to oversight and lack indicators to measure their operational efficiency. Most of the expenditures go to wages and salaries, rather than to areas such as research and development, which could help improve competency and reduce waste.

Editor’s note: The post is from an analyst with the Carnegie Middle East Center. Neither the Los Angeles Times nor Babylon & Beyond endorses the positions of the analysts, nor does Carnegie endorse the positions of The Times or its blog.

Consolidation of political democracy and economic liberalization requires citizens who have appropriate knowledge, skills and values. As states democratize, good governance will promote quality education, an objective that most Arab education systems have failed to achieve.

Despite the rapid expansion in primary and secondary education, Arab schools continue to have high dropout and repetition rates, with graduates lacking the required skills and knowledge to compete successfully in the global job market or to pursue quality higher education.

Revolutions seem to take place all of a sudden, but usually they don't really come out of the blue. Whether religious, political or economic reasons are behind upheaval, it often reflects a long process that reached a tipping point and a window of opportunity. 

The time must be right but the ground must be ripe, too. In this context, an Israeli research group suggests Tunisia's was a textbook revolution. Not in the sense that it was a perfect storm or that it followed a certain formula -- no two revolutions are the same -- but in the sense that it may actually have begun in school textbooks.

The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-SE) is a group that conducts in-depth studies of school curriculum throughout the Middle East, checking hundreds of books per country and they way they teach about tolerance and peace.

A comprehensive study of the Tunisian curriculum, completed in 2009 and presented before the European parliament, found that education in Tunisia cultivates equality and is much more progressive in teaching tolerance than any other Arab country.

But it wasn't always so, says Yohanan Manor, a retired Jewish Agency official and political scientist who established the research group a decade ago. According to Manor, Tunisia began instituting educational reform in the mid-1990s, when Zine el Abidine ben Ali (who was overthrown last month) appointed a political opponent as minister of education. Mohamed Charfi, who died a few years ago, was a lawyer and longtime human rights leader in Tunisia and a fierce critic of Ben Ali, in particular concerning human rights issues.

The now-deposed president had placed Charfi in charge of the education ministry, maybe so that  he could keep an eye on him but also because Ben Ali  was interested in letting the rights leader implement his agenda, which was separating religion and state, Manor said, noting that the issue is a longstanding one in Tunisian history.

After making startling advances in expanding public education and increasing literacy over the last three decades, Iran appears to be facing a major setback in education.

The number of students dropping out of school is more than 25%, says the secretary of the Assn. of Iranian Social Workers, according to news website Aftabnews.

The official, Mostafa Eghlimi, added that the figure is especially worrisome because kids who drop out of school are at greater risk of getting involved in crime or drugs, already an epidemic in Iran.

Eghlimi blamed the educational establishment for the high dropout rates. 

He cited outdated textbooks, overworked teaching staff, lack of specialized care for different students and kids' personal problems outside the classroom as the reasons for the  dropout problem. 

Officials are saying that females are faring better than males:  The number of illiterate girls is decreasing, while more and more boys aren't learning to read, according to Mohammad Mehdizadeh, an official for the nation's anti-literacy campaign cited by the semi-official Mehr news agency.

In fact, he said, for the first time in the history of Iran, the number of illiterate men is higher than that of women in Iran.

-- Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran

Photo: Iranian students hold an anti-American placard during an annual state-backed rally in front of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, marking the anniversary of takeover of the embassy in 1979 by militant students. Credit: Vahid Salemi / Associated Press

An Egyptian blogger whose case epitomized the struggle for freedom of expression in cyberspace has been freed after serving four years in prison on charges of insulting Islam and defaming President Hosni Mubarak.

Human rights organizations announced Wednesday that Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, the blogger known as Kareem Amer, had been released from prison. His ordeal has highlighted the Egyptian government’s concern over dissident voices arising on websites and social networks that are trickier to control than traditional opposition media outlets.

“We are deeply relieved and happy to know that Kareem’s nightmare is over and he is free at last,” Reporters Without Borders said in a statement. “Nothing will be able to erase his four years of suffering as a result of a totally unjustified conviction, but at least he will no longer be the scapegoat of Egyptian government anger at criticism expressed by bloggers. We will closely monitor the behavior of the authorities towards Kareem in the coming months and we will be ready to report any attempt to intimidate him.”

Mohammed Mustapha, a waiter in a Cairo cafe, likes to smoke, but he's not fond of the pictures the Egyptian government stamps on each pack of cigarettes: teeth rotted from gum disease, a limp cigarette suggesting impotence or a man with emphysema tethered to an oxygen mask.

With graphic advertising, new bans and taxes on tobacco, the Egyptian government seems serious about curbing the nation's epidemic number of smokers. But, as with many things in this country of 80 million, contradictions undermine appearances. Most Egyptians smoke Cleopatra cigarettes, manufactured by a company controlled by the government.

Egypt leads the Arab world in tobacco consumption. In 2009, the World Health Organization reported that 38% of Egyptian males use tobacco of some sort and that 32% smoke cigarettes. Females admit to much less smoking -- below 1% -- because it is taboo in this patriarchal culture.

Can Israel be a democratic and Jewish state at the same time? It's a divisive, long-running debate that has now found its way into the classroom -- or rather, it's about to get kicked out of school.

Israeli Education Ministry officials have moved to slash funding for high-school civics classes, where students learn about democracy, equal rights and government, and shift the money to religious teachings about the Bible, the Talmud and Zionism.

"We have nothing against Jewish studies,'' one teacher told Haaretz newspaper,"but bolstering them should not come at the expense of civics." 

A groundbreaking survey of Syrian public opinion conducted in secret has revealed what many in the region already knew about widespread dissatisfaction with the prevailing political and economic conditions and the government's ability to confront them, but according to the study's authors, the real triumph was conducting any kind of opinion poll at all.

"The most surprising result had nothing to do with survey findings, but rather the fact that you could get this data collected. People really wanted to talk," said the study's lead author, professor Angela Hawken of Pepperdine University. The report was commissioned by the Democracy Council of California.

Because nongovernmental surveys are illegal in Syria, researchers around the country worked under the radar to interview 1,046 diverse respondents over several weeks earlier this year. The results show most Syrians think the state is corrupt and incapable of solving the problems brought on by deteriorating political and economic conditions. A majority also said they believe that the state of emergency in Syria should be lifted and that the threat of war is far less crucial than concerns about political freedom, corruption and the cost of living.

The 259 students who graduated this year from the Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco’s only English-language college, are practically guaranteed a job -- unlike those Moroccans who went through the country’s French-inspired education system.

Commencement weekend at AUI, as it is commonly known, is not a very Moroccan affair. The atmosphere at the campus, set amid the pine and cedar forests of the Mid-Atlas mountain range, is part Swiss ski village, part Ivy League college. The university is in Ifrane, a mountain resort originally built for the French colonial elite wishing to escape the summer heat of Casablanca and Rabat. On a recent weekend in June, it was beset by a different kind of elite: AUI’s class of 2010 and their proud parents.

It was quickly obvious from the speeches that AUI did things the American way. 

“AUI gives you not just a degree but a whole new personality,” said alumni President Khalid Baddou. 

“AUI is more than a university; it is a community with an amazing culture. Here, you are given the weapons to face the real world with,” said science and engineering graduate Ahmad Arjdane.

A dispute over control of a vast network of semi-private universities is starting to resemble a bitter custody battle, pitting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against one of his political rivals,  Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, for control of the schools and the 1.5 million faculty members and students.

The parliament on Tuesday rejected legislation introduced by Ahmadinejad that would have given the government greater control over the Islamic Azad University system, dealing another blow to Ahmadinejad in his efforts to rein in the opposition movement that has taken root on many university campuses.

The measure would have challenged the status of the school's assets as a tax-exempt endowment and allowed Ahmadinejad to appoint a new dean and trustees.