MER Article Assessing Storm Damage Following upon the devastation of Iraq, the Gulf warmongers have attempted to articulate their vision of a Middle East dominated by Washington and its allies. In an effort to forestall the growing criticism of the “special relationship” between Israel and the US in policymaking circles, After the Storm: Challenges for Joel Beinin • 4 min read
MER Article Algeria's Democracy Between the Islamists and the Elite Algeria’s experience over the past three years has shown that in a Muslim land the process of democratization gives rise to currents that seek to destroy it. But neutralizing these currents by force entails halting the democratization process and encloses society in repression. Society can escape th Lahouari Addi • 8 min read
MER Article Al Miskin DANGEROUS For decades, Muhammad Madbouli’s bookshop in the center of Cairo has been one of that city’s -- and Egypt’s -- major cultural landmarks. Egyptians and foreigners alike knew that Madbouli had the city’s best array of Arabic books of every kind, including those which aroused the ire of the Al Miskin • 4 min read
MER Article How Israel Gets Its Credit Rating A “C” rating from the US government credit evaluators, coming after Washington has held up the $10 billion loan guarantee for more than four months, must come as something of a shock for Israel. Only last September Jacob Frenkel, governor of the Bank of Israel, told the Financial Times that a “good Fareed Mohamedi • 4 min read
MER Article Palestinian Self-Government Proposal On January 14, in the second round of direct talks between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators in Washington, DC, the Palestinian side presented a draft outline of a Palestinian Interim Self-Government Authority (PISGA). Media accounts of the talks barely noted this unprecedented development, but this is one document that should not Joe Stork • 3 min read
MER Article Aftermath Eighteen-year old Anwar is new to bastat, street peddling. Two days ago his mother bought several crates of corn on the cob, which she boiled for him to sell in Tulkarm refugee camp streets. Recently released from a six-month term at Ansar III detention camp in the Negev desert, Anwar returned home Sharry Lapp • 9 min read
MER Article Erasing Arab Jerusalem Palestinian geographer Khaili Tufukji walks the streets of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem every day, carefully noting the dizzying Israeli construction. He documents cases of demolished and seized houses, follows up on land confiscations, studies new archaeological and historical claims, and tries to decipher the meaning and extent of Israeli government plans Anita Vitullo Khoury • 8 min read
MER Article American Jews and Palestine In 1988, in the midst of the intifada, American Jews mustered their forces in opposition to an Israeli government policy and forced the government to back down. At issue was the Israeli government’s decision to change the Law of Return to recognize only Orthodox converts to Judaism. The same America Marilyn Neimark • 16 min read
MER Article Why We Negotiate Sami al-Kilani is a member of the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks. A poet and short-story writer, he has spent several years in Israeli prisons and under town arrest in his home in Ya‘bad in the occupied West Bank. His brother Ahmad was shot dead by Israeli troops in October 1988. Joost Hi Joost Hiltermann • 7 min read
MER Article Winds of War, Winds of Peace The Gulf war transformed the political landscape of the Middle East, and thus the politics of the Palestinian question. Saddam Hussein’s promised “linkage” between the Gulf and Palestinian questions was in fact established, as the US sought to preserve its regional allies from a popular backlash, an Roger Heacock, Ali Jarbawi • 12 min read
MER Article How to Stop Shamir Naomi Chazan is chair of the Truman Institute at Hebrew University, and author of Irridentism and International Policy (Lynne Rienner, 1991). Salim Tamari and Joel Beinin spoke with her in Jerusalem on December 30, 1991. What are the likely effects of the settlers’ move into Silwan on the peace neg Joel Beinin, Salim Tamari • 10 min read
MER Article Palestine in the New Order Since the Gulf war, the Palestinian cause has entered an entirely new phase, one that is not merely a consequence of the war in the narrow sense. The Gulf crisis was the setting for a series of confrontations between local and international forces of such intensity that it is difficult to find a pre Azmi Bishara • 17 min read
