MER Article Pakistan's Nuclear Fix Earlier this year, stories citing US intelligence documents reported that Pakistan now had the capacity to enrich uranium to 93 percent. In other words, Pakistan could produce its own weapons-grade nuclear material. This is perhaps the single most difficult step in manufacturing nuclear bombs. Few Joe Stork • 7 min read
MER Article Recipe for an Israeli Nuclear Arsenal Ten years ago, 62 percent of Israelis questioned in a poll were convinced that their nation had the nuclear bomb; 77 percent thought that if it didn’t already have it, it should. Only four percent believed Israel was nuclear-free. [1] In October 1986, an Israeli nuclear technician revealed to the Su Martha Wenger • 19 min read
MER Article Nuclear Shadow Over the Middle East In the summer of 1984, Newsweek published the results of a Gallup poll of hundreds of top-ranking American military officers. Among the questions was this: where did they see the greatest threat of a conflict situation which might escalate to nuclear war? The majority responded clearly: the Middle E Joe Stork • 11 min read
MER Article From the Editors (November/December 1986) Top Reagan aides from the National Security Council and the CIA fly secretly to Iran atop crates of missiles, Bible in one hand and cake in the other. The image aptly captures the bizarre and dangerous character of Washington’s policies in the Middle East and Central America. Two of the men on the T The Editors • 3 min read
MER Article Letters (September/October 1986) Natural Allies I’ve been a subscriber for over a year and have greatly appreciated MERIP’s in-depth analysis and the familiarity with resources that it provides. Usually I am also appreciative of a balanced, scholarly tone about a situation in which polarization is so much the status quo that a “mo (Author not identified) • 4 min read
MER Article Books on Women in Iran Guity Nashat, ed., Women and Revolution in Iran (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1983). Farah Azari, ed., Women of Iran: The Conflict with Fundamentalist Islam (London: Ithaca Press, 1983). Azar Tabari and Nahid Yeganeh, eds., In the Shadow of Islam: The Women’s Movement in Iran (London: Zed Books, 1 Mary Hegland • 6 min read
MER Article Hawi, Naked in Exile Khalil Hawi, Naked in Exile (The Threshing Floors of Hunger) (trans. Adnan Haydar and Michael Beard) (Washington DC: Three Continents Press, 1985). Barbara Harlow • 1 min read
MER Article ESCWA, Economic Integration in Western Asia ESCWA, Economic Integration in Western Asia (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985). This collection of papers from ECWA’s December 1981 Expert Group Meeting on Feasible Forms of Economic Cooperation and Integration in Western Asia includes a useful review of various schemes for Arab economic integrat Danny Reachard • 1 min read
MER Article Khalidi, Under Siege Rashid Khalidi, Under Siege: PLO Decisionmaking During the 1982 War (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986). Among the many books dealing with the 1982 war in Lebanon, Rashid Khalidi’s stands out by focusing on the perceptions and decisions of that campaign’s main target: the PLO. The book asks Yezid Sayigh • 4 min read
MER Article Cairo's Long Summer The current situation in Egypt has great potential for disaster. On the economic front, the government threatens to eliminate subsidies on food and other basic consumer commodities in order to reduce its current budget deficit of about $4 billion. The subsidies are currently costing $3.8 billion -- Ben Rose • 5 min read
MER Article Egypt's Infitah Bourgeoisie A recent story illustrates the political power of the bourgeoisie in contemporary Egypt: At the beginning of 1985, the Egyptian minister of economy, Mustafa al-Sa‘id, unveiled a set of new trade and banking laws. They aimed, among other things, at imposing a greater degree of Central Bank control ov Robert Vitalis • 5 min read
MER Article Private Capital in Israel The overwhelming majority of big capitalists in Israel today emerged from a group of no more than 60,000 “veterans” of the Jewish settlement in Palestine who arrived before the creation of the state or are descendants of such veterans. Some, especially from Sephardic families who settled in Palestin Joel Beinin • 11 min read
