The House of Representatives is set to vote on a resolution to scale back the US military intervention in Libya. House Republicans contend that President Obama violated the War Powers Act, which limits the president's ability to declare war without the consent of Congress. While the proposal will prevent the US military from engaging in direct combat operations in the Libya, it will allow it to continue to supply support and intelligence for our NATO allies.

The Tunisian revolt was inspired by Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old fruit vendor who set himself on fire after police officers confiscated his cart. In Egypt, the revolution was kindled by the beating death of Khaled Said, an ordinary Alexandrian. Now, Syrian protesters may have found a martyr to unite under: 13-year-old Syrian boy Hamzah Al-Khatib. Ian Black, Middle East Editor for The Guardian says "what's happening in Syria is really happening without the scrutiny of the international media," so there's been no way to verify the size of the protests or those loyal to the regime.

Foreign governments have yet to settle on a strategy for how to respond to the fighting in Libya. Over the weekend, a covert British team entered Libya by helicopter during the night, and was quickly detained by anti-Gadhafi forces. They were ultimately released, but what followed was an awkward conversation between the British ambassador to Libya, Richard Northern and a senior rebel leader. The ambassador sounds like he didn't fully grasp why the special ops team had entered in such a suspicous way. "We sent a small group just to find if there was a hotel," Northern said.

"Gadhafi's power seems to be under very serious challenge," says Ian Black, Middle East editor for The Guardian. Opposition forces have taken control of the eastern part of Libya and reports say that they have taken control of a city near Tripoli. The impression is that key leaders have started to abandon Gadhafi, with the interior minister, one of the original comarades of the Libyan revolution, defecting. However, the country is rich and Gadhafi has many resources at his disposal. The fight will likely be a bloody one.

The biggest leak of confidential documents in the history of the Middle East reveal that Palestinian negotiators secretly told Israel it could keep swathes of occupied East Jerusalem. Thousands of pages of confidential Palestinian records of negotiations with Israel and the U.S. have been published by the Guardian and Al Jazeera. The Guardian’s Middle East editor Ian Black says the documents show a weak and desperate Palestinian side offering a string of concessions that will shock Palestinians and the wider Arab world.The former United States Ambassador to Israel and director of Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institute, Martin Indyk, disagrees.

Secret documents leaked to WikiLeaks describe "persistent rumors of corruption" as fueling frustration with Tunisia's government. Tunisians have already been frustrated with their repressive leadership, but these documents may have helped to incite the current protests. Reporter for The Guardian, Ian Black, says that it is significant that these protests have forced the current president to announce that he will not seek another term in 2014.

One of the publications that received the 50,000 classified diplomatic cables from Wikileaks was U.K. newspaper The Guardian. Some have wondered if the publication is playing a part in what they charge is Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's "anti-Americanism." Is the leak a shining example of freedom of the press, or a dangerous and damaging action? 

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, American presidents have tried long and hard to encourage peace in the Middle East. After he helped ink the Camp David Accords, former President Jimmy Carter insightfully warned that peace would not come easily. "The questions that have brought warfare and bitterness to the Middle East for the last thirty years will not be settled overnight," he said. Now, six presidencies and thirty years later, lasting peace has yet to be achieved.

President Obama has repeatedly tried to explain the mission in Afghanistan, eight years after the September 11th attacks, as an attempt to destroy al-Qaida as a threat. Osama bin Laden and the location of the al-Qaida leadership is still believed to be somewhere in the rugged highlands of northwest Pakistan, not far from Afghanistan. Joining us is Ian Black, Middle East editor for The Guardian newspaper and longtime reporter, editor, author and analyst of Middle East issues and military affairs.