U.S. Caution and Arab Restraint Mark a New Terror Era

People learn from catastrophes. Amid the grief and speculation over the Boston bombings, two things stand out to me: a refusal to rush to judgment in the U.S. commentary and the absence of schadenfreude in the Arab media.

There was the early report that a young Saudi student had been on the scene, that his apartment had been searched, that he had suffered an injury, and that he was under watch in a hospital. Here we go again, many thought. Memories of those 15 young Saudis on the planes on Sept. 11, 2001, were not far off. But the authorities soon pronounced the Saudi student a witness, not a suspect in the deed.