MER Article Uprising in Gaza One year before the Palestinian mass uprising began, the writing was on the grey cement walls of refugee camp houses in Gaza, where you could read the anguish of Gaza camp residents at the spectacle of the Amal militia bombarding Palestinians in the camps in Lebanon. These attacks forged a real unit Anita Vitullo Khoury • 11 min read
MER Article Gaza Diary FEBRUARY 7, 1988, MORNING “Welcome to Gaza,” the sign reads, but the streets are not inviting. The long road into town is nearly deserted, its shops and shanties locked shut; only a few men gather sporadically for coffee or a cigarette. Beyond, the camps stretch toward the sea like a giant junkyard Melissa Baumann • 14 min read
MER Article Morning in Ramallah Military Court The main street was completely deserted on the way to Ramallah Military Headquarters the morning of February 25. It was the second day of a general strike called for in the eighth statement by the United National Leadership to protest the visit of Secretary of State George Shultz. Few people were ev Lee OBrien, Penny Johnson • 2 min read
MER Article The West Bank Rises Up Ramallah’s landscape this February 21 has overtones of a war zone. Residents have dismantled the ancient stone wall across the street for a series of barricades. The smoke of a burning tire rises in the clear early afternoon air over nearby al-Am‘ari refugee camp and army flares light the camp at ni Lee OBrien, Penny Johnson • 20 min read
MER Article From the Editors (May/June 1988) In the land of Palestine-Israel, the “generation of occupation” has rewritten the equations that will describe the dynamics of any future political equilibrium. Israeli rulers are determined to stand against this sea change. Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin insists that the uprising will achieve no P The Editors • 2 min read
MER Article Adams, The Financing of Terror James Adams, The Financing of Terror, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986.) I don’t care what anyone says: I liked Claire Sterling’s 1981 classic, The Terror Network. Sure, the plot was weak and the characterization a bit sketchy -- but what imagination! Soviet-supplied attack helicopters in the s Rex Brynen • 2 min read
MER Article Rubenberg, Israel and the American National Interest Cheryl A. Rubenberg, Israel and the American National Interest: A Critical Examination, (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1986.) Imagine a planet which two superstates dominate after global wars have crippled other contenders. Then assume their rivalry delimits a decisive zone w Edward Danforth • 3 min read
MER Article Sivan, Radical Islam; Kepel, Muslim Extremism in Egypt Emmanuel Sivan, Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1985.) Gilles Kepel, Muslim Extremism in Egypt: The Prophet and Pharoah (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985.) Translated from the French by Jon Rothschild. Michael Gilsenan • 4 min read
MER Article Cover-up and Blowback The House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran and Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition. Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair. (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1 Jonathan Marshall • 10 min read
MER Article A Split in the Iraqi Communist Party? In the aftermath of the party’s fourth congress in October 1985, a group of 11 members led by an ex-alternate member of the central command of the party were expelled from the party. They had violated the party’s constitution by publicly circulating a memorandum attacking the new policy adopted by t Isam al-Khafaji • 2 min read
MER Article Iraq's Seventh Year According to the Iranian media, the seventh year of the war was again to be the “decisive year.” For Iraq it was a year of more “achievements and victories” under the leadership of the “militant leader.” On March 21,1987, the Persian New Year, Saddam Hussein brought thousands of demonstrators to the Isam al-Khafaji • 13 min read
MER Article Italy to the Gulf—and Back Aside from the two superpowers, whose superpower most observers believe to be waning, there is a third, potential superpower haunting Western Europe -- which is Europe itself. If only it could get it together. And what better occasion to get together than to protect “our oil” from the awful ayatolla Diane Johnstone • 5 min read
