Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Shira Robinson

Shira Robinson, an editor of this magazine, is associate professor of Middle East history at George Washington University.

Current Analysis

Using and Abusing Memory

A firestorm broke out unexpectedly on my Facebook feed yesterday morning.

Shira Robinson • 4 min read

Current Analysis

Analyze This

In her column on the Haaretz website yesterday, Carleton University political scientist Mira Sucharov bemoaned the tendency [http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/the-fifth-question/.premium-1.577688 ] of “some of the cleverest minds on Israel and Palestine” to “devolve” into Manichean thinking about Israel

Shira Robinson • 2 min read

Current Analysis

The Ongoing Fantasy of Israeli Democracy Before 1967

The past week has a witnessed a flurry of debate in the American and Israeli media over the growing call [http://www.bdsmovement.net/] to boycott companies and institutions that profit from or are otherwise complicit in the ongoing 47-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Shira Robinson • 3 min read

Current Analysis

The Problem of Privilege

“To believe in a democratic Jewish state today is to be caught between the jaws of a pincer,” writes Peter Beinart in his widely circulated and hotly debated op-ed [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/opinion/to-save-israel-boycott-the-settlements.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all]. Indeed -- but it was ever t

Shira Robinson • 4 min read

MER Article

The Ghetto vs. the Gun

Idith Zertal, Israel’s Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood (trans. Chaya Galai) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).

Shira Robinson • 7 min read

MER Article

My Hairdresser Is a Sniper

Two months ago, my hairdresser confessed to me that he was a sniper. During his last trip to downtown Jerusalem, Jake told me, he had seen sharpshooters on top of all the buildings. "I had never noticed them," I admitted. "How did you know they were there?" "Well, if you really want to know," he s

Shira Robinson • 5 min read