Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

Martha Wenger

Martha Wenger was assistant editor of Middle East Report from 1982–1993. Following her departure from MERIP, Martha pursued an advanced degree in library science and, from 1998, she served as a librarian at the Washington International School in

MER Article

Jerusalem: A Primer

It is possible to talk of Jerusalem in many ways: as a city where history lives, as a city where history lives, as a city holy to Christians, Jews and Muslims, as a place where people live and work, as a place of pilgrimage. This primer talks of Jerusalem the modern city, the city claimed by both Pa

Martha Wenger • 9 min read

MER Article

Who Owns the News?

TELEVISION ABC Capital Cities bought ABC, with its 230 affiliated stations, for $3.4 billion in 1986. Also owns: 8 TV stations; 9 dailies, 74 weeklies (Kansas City Star); radio networks with 3,000 affiliated stations; 21 radio stations; a cable programming company; some 60 publications (Women’s Wea

Sally Ethelston, Martha Wenger • 3 min read

MER Article

Sudan: Politics and Society

Sudan is a vast country, the largest in Africa and as large as the United States east of the Mississippi river. Its 25 million people are divided among 19 major ethnic groups and 597 subgroups. [1] Arabic is the official language, the mother tongue of the majority of Sudanese; English

Martha Wenger • 12 min read

MER Article

The US in the Persian Gulf

The scale of the US military deployment in the Persian Gulf -- half of all US combat forces worldwide -- is something of a shock, even to the Pentagon. “Nobody ever thought they’d be free to commit all those forces,” one military official said.

Martha Wenger, Joe Stork • 8 min read

MER Article

Primer: The Food Gap in the Middle East

As the Middle East enters the 1990s, the food situation cannot be easily captured in catch phrases like “dire emergency." Outside of the Horn of Africa, no country confronts wide-scale starvation, though poor people throughout the region face personal food emergencies daily. Agricultural production

Martha Wenger, Joe Stork • 9 min read

MER Article

Primer: Lebanon's 15-Year War, 1975-1990

Lebanon’s people have paid a tremendous price for 15 years of invasion and civil war -- an estimated 150,000 killed, tens of thousands wounded, and hundreds of thousands displaced and left destitute. Lebanon is the only developing country in which, despite high birth rates, population growth has sta

Martha Wenger • 8 min read

MER Article

Turkey: A Primer

The People Turkey’s population, about 54 million, is growing at a rate of 2.5 percent -- higher than European countries, but lower than most Third World nations. Birth rates vary widely, from no more than two children among middle-class families in western cities to as many as 17 in rural families

Martha Wenger • 9 min read

MER Article

Bad News for NATO

The air show disaster in West Germany in late August that killed 62 and injured 300 was bad news for the US Air Force, even though Italian jet fighters were involved in the crash. Germans were already nervous in the wake of a series of military jet crashes earlier this year. On a single day in June,

Martha Wenger • 1 min read

MER Article

More Deadly Than Tears

The roll call of the 146 dead published by the Palestine Human Rights Information Center in Jerusalem, March 20, 1988, is dominated by gunshot victims: shot in the head, shot in the chest, shot in the neck. But among the 49 “deaths from other causes,” 31 were killed by a “non-lethal” riot control we

Martha Wenger • 5 min read

MER Article

Torture in Turkey

Political prisoners in Turkey have long confronted a chilling reality: once arrested, they face almost certain torture. Based on thousands of reports over many years, Amnesty International has concluded that “anybody detained in the country for political reasons is at great risk of being tortured, a

Martha Wenger • 1 min read

MER Article

Egypt: A Primer

The People Nearly 50 million Egyptians live in this flat, hot, dry land the size of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas combined. Most of them are crowded into a fertile strip along the Nile River and its delta. In greater Cairo, the 17th largest city in the world, population density is an astounding 27,0

Martha Wenger • 4 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