I find it interesting that the desire for change has produced a very similar response all across North Africa and the Middle East. That this should arise now rather than earlier when the Palestinian issue has been around since 1948 suggests a more profound change has occurred.
I suspect it is the result of education working its way into a second generation whose parents have been educated abroad or who have had occasion to travel there. The Israeli/Palestinian issue is still basically about land and property whereas the issue now presenting itself is about freedom of expression.
In the past ruling elites have used a common enemy as a way of distracting people from seeing the dust beneath their own feet and this has been the case in the Middle East. Education has given rise to demands for freedom which have in turn been resisted by these same ruling elites. The resistance cannot be blamed on outsiders and as a result the distraction is removed.
I suspect a similar pattern may emerge in the United States where the absence of an external enemy such as Communism, Islamic Fundamentalism or The Chinese is beginning to expose the cracks within US society in terms of the battle between conservative and progressive forces. It becomes difficult to portray Islam as the enemy when they are fighting for democracy and freedom of expression. It becomes difficult to demonize the Chinese when they invest in your factories and provide you with loans.
So “internal” issues within the US, within the Middle East and, in terms of economic sovereignty, in Europe are increasingly coming to the fore as the media and travel expose the lie that is the difference between THEM and US.
I think the internet and social media is having an important role also, and now mobile phones with integrated cameras everyone is a frontline reporter.