MERIP
Media Resource List, December 21, 2005
AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS on
the following topics:
- Bethlehem at Christmas
- Palestinian politics, splits in Fatah
- Iranian president's recent remarks
CHRISTIANE DABDOUB-NASSER
Christiane Dabdoub-Nasser is head of public awareness and
international relations for the Centre
for Cultural Heritage Preservation in Bethlehem. The Centre
works to restore historic buildings, to engage the public
and to train local architects and craftsmen. The Centre is
now inaugurating the Christmas Market under the patronage
of Michel Sabbah, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
MOUIN RABBANI
Mouin Rabbani is senior Middle East analyst with the International
Crisis Group, specializing on Palestine and the Arab-Israeli
conflict, and a contributing editor of Middle East Report
. He has published widely on Palestinian issues and travels
to Palestine frequently. He commented today: "The Palestinian
political system is in a process of fundamental reconfiguration,
the main elements of which are the deepening crisis within
the dominant Fatah movement and the integration of the Islamist
Hamas movement into Palestinian national institutions. Although
landmark legislative elections are scheduled for January 25,
it is difficult to predict whether these will indeed be held.
Conducting them under current conditions will result in major
losses for Fatah, whereas postponing them could well spell
confrontation with Hamas. The key issue will be what happens
within Fatah -- with the leadership losing control on account
of its refusal to share power, a formal split or further disintegration
may be the only options."
KAVEH EHSANI
Kaveh Ehsani is a research scholar at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
He is on the editorial boards of Middle East Report
and Goft-o-gu (Dialogue) journal in Iran. Ehsani
is the author, most recently, of "Social Engineering
and the Contradictions of Modernization in Khuzestan's Company
Town," International Review of Social History
(2003), "High Stakes for Iran," Middle East
Report (Summer 2003) and "Neo-Conservatives, Hardline
Clerics and the Bomb," Middle East Report (Winter
2004). He said today: “Barely six months into Ahmadinejad's
presidency, it is amply clear that the ‘conservatives' are
as fragmented as the ‘reformers' were. They have not come
up with a single stratagem to deal with unemployment and poverty,
two of their key campaign issues, and so need to redirect
mounting popular frustration. Ahmadinejad's hard-core constituency
is in the military/intelligence apparatus. Their solution,
in keeping with their long-term interest, may be to engineer
Iran's continued isolation amidst international hostility
so great as to create a constant near-crisis.”
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