MER Article A Dayr Yasin Policy for the 1980s Thick clouds of disinformation covered the Israeli public at the outset of the invasion of Lebanon, the counterpart to the dark clouds and debris that cover the death, the gutted cities, the utter destruction along the Lebanese coast and its hinterland. The Israeli media itself indulged in the disin Emmanuel Farjoun • 12 min read
MER Article Israel in Lebanon, 1975-1982 Israel’s invasion of Lebanon on June 6, 1982 brings to an end the phase of Lebanese political history which opened with the 1975-1976 civil war. It is a logical outgrowth of Israel’s policies in Lebanon since 1975. The 1975-1976 war, in turn, marked a culmination of trends which had been developing James A. Reilly • 22 min read
MER Article "A Strategy Much Like Vietnam" Dan Connell has covered the Horn of Africa for newspapers and broadcast media in North America and Europe since 1976. He spoke with the MERIP editors immediately after returning from Lebanon in early August. Can you describe the situation in Beirut? Dan Connell • 9 min read
MER Article Beirut Diary Mid-May: This weekend Yasser Arafat received an urgent message from Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev. During the week, the British ambassador paid an unusual visit to the PLO political department offices in the Arab University area. On Saturday afternoon, Arafat sent a message to all PLO offices in Mark Garfield • 8 min read
MER Article The War in Lebanon On Sunday morning, June 6, 1982, 40,000 Israeli troops, with hundreds of tanks and armored personnel carriers, rolled across the 33-mile border with southern Lebanon. Israeli seaborne troops landed on the Lebanese coast at Sidon and near the mouth of the Zahrani River, while the Israeli air force co James Paul, Joe Stork • 26 min read
MER Article From the Editors (September/October 1982) It may never be possible to know who killed Bashir Gemayel. No one had more blood on their hands from the last eight years of civil war than the president-elect; his many enemies cut across the range of political and sectarian divisions in Lebanon. The circumstances and scale of the attack suggest t The Editors • 3 min read
MER Article Book Notes J. S. Birks and C. A. Sinclair, Arab Manpower (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1980). (Author not identified) • 4 min read
MER Article Islam in the News Edward W. Said, Covering Islam (London: Routledge & Regan Paul, 1981). Edward Said’s Covering Islam is one part of his project to analyze aspects of the Western view of Islam and the Middle East. Orientalism, the first and most substantial of these books, traced the evolution of European attitudes Sarah J Graham-Brown • 7 min read
MER Article Egypt's Transition under Nasser Mahmoud Abdel-Fadil, The Political Economy of Nasserism: A Study in Employment and Income Distribution Policies in Urban Egypt, 1952-1972 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980). Ellis Goldberg, Joel Beinin • 13 min read
MER Article Sadat's Moment, Egypt's History David Hirst and Irene Beeson, Sadat (London: Faber and Faber, 1981). Ghali Shoukri, Egypte, la contre-revolution (Paris: Editions Le Sycomore, 1979). These two assessments of the past decade in Egypt pose the question of approach: Can we most conveniently comprehend the period by studying the role Judith Tucker • 6 min read
MER Article Sadat's Alter Ego Osman Ahmed Osman, Egypt’s entrepreneurial tycoon, enjoyed a privileged status that cannot be attributed solely to his role as Sadat’s closest confidant, or even to his kinship by marriage with the president. Many Egyptians came to see him as Sadat’s alter ego, minus the latter’s presidential immuni Mohamed Sid-Ahmed • 6 min read
MER Article Foreign Investment in Egypt According to data gathered by the UN Center on Transnational Corporations, the overwhelming majority of foreign investment in Egypt has been from the United States, with the exception of the banking sector. There has been very little European investment, and virtually no Japanese presence. The UN da James Paul • 2 min read
