MER Article Remembering Fifty Years of Community, Challenges and Change "I was an unformed lefty before my MERIP days,” wrote Lisa Hajjar. “I credit MERIP with teaching and steeping me in real leftist politics.” I hope Lisa won’t be embarrassed if I call her the quintessential “MERIP baby,” a person who, having cut her teeth as an intern in the office, went on to become Chris Toensing • 6 min read
MER Article MERIP’s Place in the Political and Media Landscape — An interview with Joe Stork and Chris Toensing Joe Stork is one of the founders of MERIP and served as the editor of Middle East Report until 1995. He went on to be deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division. Chris Toensing was executive director of MERIP and editor of Middle East Report from 2000 to 2017 and s Joe Stork, Chris Toensing, Lisa Hajjar • 17 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Winter 2016) As the baleful administration of President Donald Trump bumbles from one scandal to the next, a set of deeply disturbing patterns have emerged in the domestic politics and foreign policy of the United States. Chris Toensing • 3 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Summer 2016) [su_heading align="left"]The new American-Israeli military aid package, in short, is another grim reminder that US stewardship of the Israeli-Palestinian file has functioned not only to frustrate peace but also to consolidate the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and deepen its structural violence.[/su_heading] At Chris Toensing • 3 min read
MER Article Bennis, Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror Phyllis Bennis, Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror: A Primer (Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press, 2015). The amalgamation of Iraqi ex-Baathists, Iraqi and Syrian jihadis, disgruntled locals and outside recruits known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, continues to ca Chris Toensing • 2 min read
Current Analysis Your Tax Dollars Enable Police Brutality Abroad Ever since the Black Lives Matter movement exploded into the headlines, violence by American police officers has come under fire from activists and ordinary citizens alike. Less discussed, however, is how the US government winks at the police brutality of its client states abroad. The military gove Chris Toensing • 2 min read
Current Analysis Have Yourself Some Anti-Refugee Hysteria As holiday shoppers empty their wallets to buy presents for family and friends, there’s been an outbreak of miserliness among our politicians—directed at some of the world’s most helpless people. At least 30 Republican governors, and one Democrat, are vowing to bar Syrian refugees from their states Chris Toensing • 2 min read
Current Analysis We Can—and Should—Do More to Help Syrian Refugees Imagine that 58 million Americans were streaming into Canada and Mexico, many with only a small satchel and the clothes on their backs. Picture another 102 million residents of the Eastern seaboard seeking refuge with relatives in the Midwest and West. That terrifying mental exercise gives a sense Chris Toensing • 2 min read
Current Analysis An Extraordinary Feat of Diplomacy The nuclear agreement with Iran is an extraordinary feat of diplomacy. First and foremost, non-proliferation experts agree that the deal blocks all of the routes to making an atomic bomb. There are provisions for rigorous inspections—so if Iran cheats, the world will know. Second, it isn’t just Wa Chris Toensing • 2 min read
Current Analysis Yemen Is Starving, and We're Partly to Blame Twenty million people in Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, are at risk of dying from hunger or thirst. That’s 80 percent of the country’s population, which according to UN agencies badly needs emergency supplies of food and water, along with fuel and medicine. This almost unimaginable c Chris Toensing • 2 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Summer 2015) No publication based in Washington should write about prisons without first noting that America leads the world in incarceration. Amanda Ufheil-Somers, Chris Toensing • 9 min read
Current Analysis Footing the Bill While Israel Thumbs Its Nose It’s tax season again. How about a little accounting? Every year, Washington sends $3.1 billion of taxpayers’ hard-earned money to Israel. It’s only fair to ask what Americans are getting in return. That seems especially appropriate now. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is busy badmouthi Chris Toensing • 2 min read
