Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

Joel Beinin

Joel Beinin is Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and professor of Middle East History, Emeritus at Stanford University and a contributing editor of Middle East Report.

MER Article

Freedman, The Middle East Since Camp David

Robert O. Freedman, ed., The Middle East Since Camp David (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1984). This is the third volume in a series based on papers presented at conferences organized by the Baltimore Hebrew College’s Center for the Study of Israel and the Contemporary Middle East. These papers are

Joel Beinin • 1 min read

MER Article

Israel's Political Formations

Alignment: The dominant party in the Labor Zionist movement was the right social-democratic Mapai. In 1965, a group loyal to Mapai’s historic leader, David Ben-Gurion, split and formed Rafi -- a formation characterized by an “activist” military policy and a technocratic/statist outlook. This group i

Joel Beinin • 2 min read

MER Article

The Cold Peace

March 26, 1985, will mark the sixth anniversary of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, brokered and signed in Washington, the culmination of the “Camp David process.” What have been the consequences of this pact, and where is the peace it was supposed to usher into the region?

Joel Beinin • 21 min read

MER Article

Cohen, Political Parties in the West Bank Under the Jordanian Regime, 1949-1967

Amnon Cohen, Political Parties in the West Bank Under the Jordanian Regime, 1949-1967 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982).

Joel Beinin • 4 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

Formation of the Egyptian Working Class

The roots of the Egyptian working class reach back into nineteenth century when Muhammed ‘Ali (1805-1849), founder of the dynasty which ruled Egypt until 1952, initiated his abortive industrialization program. Beginning in 1819 his regime built European style factories in three major sectors: Milita

Joel Beinin • 31 min read

MER Article

Davis, Israel: Utopia Incorporated

Uri Davis, Israel: Utopia Incorporated (London: Zed Books, 1977).

Joel Beinin • 4 min read

MER Article

Challenge from Israel's Military

The Israeli army -- or the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) -- has assumed since the 1967 war an increasingly prominent role in Israeli society. Today the IDF is the single largest factor in Israel’s economy. Its officer corps, once a highly motivated and ideologically cohesive elite trained in the ideol

Joel Beinin • 7 min read