MER Article Political Aspects of Health Health, along with food and shelter, is a fundamental element of every person's life. If we are in good health we may take it for granted, but when our health is bad -- when we are ill or injured -- it becomes central to our lives. Joe Stork • 14 min read
MER Article From the Editors (November/December 1989) When the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund met in Washington in September, President Husni Mubarak was on hand to speak about the Third World debt crisis. For more than a year, Cairo has been negotiating a new $500 million agreement with the IMF that would allow Egypt to reschedule $10 The Editors • 4 min read
MER Article Letters (September/October 1989) New Jewish Agenda Expels NAP (Author not identified) • 3 min read
MER Article Editor's Bookshelf (September/October 1989) Television may be the best demarcator of the limits of speech that can actually be heard and understood in the US today. The Palestinian intifada has broadened public tolerance for critical presentation of Middle Eastern issues on the tube. But the extent and duration of this change remain subject t Joel Beinin • 4 min read
MER Article Recent Books on Turkey Mehmet Ali Birand, The Generals’ Coup in Turkey: An Inside Story of September 12, 1980 (London: Brassey’s Defence Publishers, 1987). Irvin Cemil Schick and Ahmet Ertuğrul Tonak, eds., Turkey in Transition: New Perspectives (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987). Turkey suffers more than its share Ömer Karasapan • 4 min read
MER Article Containment, Counterrevolution and Credibility Gabriel Kolko, Confronting the Third World: United States Foreign Policy, 1945-1980 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1988). Gabriel Kolko has been a master guide of modern US history for countless students seeking to go beyond official versions and conformist interpretations. From The Triumph of Conserva irene gendzier • 7 min read
MER Article Reading History Backwards Edmund Burke III and Ira Lapidus, eds., Islam, Politics and Social Movements (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988). Shireen T. Hunter, ed., The Politics of Islamic Revivalism: Diversity and Unity (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1988). Henry Munson, Jr., Islam and Revolut Sami Zubaida • 8 min read
MER Article Human Rights Briefing The bus arrived at Tadmur Prison where the military police awaited us. The warders helped us off the bus, whipping us brutally and mercilessly until we were all out. They removed the handcuffs and blindfolds, and then we were taken into a courtyard overlooked by the prison’s offices, where our names Nabeel Abraham • 4 min read
MER Article Black Hebrews in the Promised Land The Black Hebrews are a group of African-Americans who have settled in Israel, where their controversial presence has fed charges of Israeli racism. Who are these Black Hebrews, and why have they attracted so much attention? Ben-Ami Carter, leader of the Kingdom of God Nation, as the community forma Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi • 3 min read
MER Article Israel, the Contras and the North Trial Oliver North’s trial this spring surprised everyone: It actually produced some new information. But some of its most important revelations -- those touching on Israel’s role in Central America -- received little or no attention in the press. Jonathan Marshall • 8 min read
MER Article Arab Apocalypse As the twentieth century comes to a close, the voice of Etel Adnan continues to speak the prophetic visions of legendary women shut out by men at history’s dawn. In the tradition of Zarqa’ al-Yamama of pre-Islamic Arabia, and of Cassandra in Greek mythology, Adnan’s poetic premonitions and indignant Etel Adnan • 3 min read
MER Article Al Miskin In Israel a new computer game called Intifada -- developed by a Russian-born supporter of Meir Kahane who immigrated to Israel from the US after a stint in the Jewish Defense League -- has become a bestseller. Players score points for successfully using tear gas, plastic bullets, rubber bullets and/ Al Miskin • 3 min read
