MER Article From the Editor (Winter 2006) “Two words,” said a Virginia man asked by the Washington Post to explain his vote for the Democrat in the 2006 Senate race. “‘Neuter Bush.’” On the morrow of the November 7 Congressional elections, there was a palpable sense of a mission accomplished in the blue-tinted precincts of the United The Editors • 3 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Fall 2006) First drafts of history make strange bedfellows. Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah, secretary-general of Hizballah, claimed a “strategic, historic victory” when UN Security Council Resolution 1701 ushered in a very belated “cessation of hostilities” in Lebanon and Israel on August 14. Indeed, grumbled the Israeli right and its backers in Washington, Israel The Editors • 5 min read
Current Analysis Letting Lebanon Burn Israel is raining destruction upon Lebanon in a purely defensive operation, according to the White House and most of Congress. Even some CNN anchors, habituated to mechanical reporting of “Middle East violence,” sound slightly incredulous. With over 300 Lebanese dead and easily 500,000 displaced, wi The Editors • 8 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (Summer 2006) Aarts, Paul and Gerd Nonneman, eds. Saudi Arabia in the Balance: Political Economy, Society, Foreign Affairs (New York: New York University Press, 2005). Abdul-Ahad, Ghaith, Kael Alford, Thorne Anderson and Rita Leistner. Unembedded: Four Independent Photographers on the War in Iraq (White River Ju The Editors • 1 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Summer 2006) Call it “unconventional,” “muted” or “low-grade,” but civil war in Iraq has begun. A Los Angeles Times investigation published on May 7 documented at least 3,800 violent deaths, many of them execution-style murders, in Baghdad alone during the first three months of 2006. The reason for each and every The Editors • 2 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (Spring 2006) Aghaie, Kamran Scot, ed. The Women of Karbala: Ritual Performance and Symbolic Discourses in Modern Shi‘i Islam (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2005). Bahgat, Gawdat. Israel and the Persian Gulf: Retrospect and Prospect (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2006). Balaghi, Shiva. The Editors • 2 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Spring 2006) The ocean of ink spilled after the remarkable success of Hamas in January’s Palestinian Legislative Council elections has drowned a few salient facts. The Editors • 3 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (Winter 2005) Burke, Jason. Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam (London: Penguin, 2004). Brecher, Jeremy, Jill Cutler and Brendan Smith, eds. In the Name of Democracy: American War Crimes in Iraq and Beyond (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2005). Dajani, Souad. The Untold Story: The Cost of Israel’s Occupat The Editors • 1 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Winter 2005) Here we go again. A Baathist dictatorship is widely suspected and pointedly accused of an indefensible act. The United States, backed strongly by a European ally on the UN Security Council, is pressing the “international community” to penalize and isolate that regime until it makes “a strategic decision to fundamentally The Editors • 8 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (Fall 2005) Afary, Janet and Kevin B. Anderson. Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005). Dodge, Toby. “Iraq’s Future: The Aftermath of Regime Change.” Adelphi Paper 372 (London: International Institute for Strategic Studies, 2005). The Editors • 1 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Fall 2005) Mere months ago, devotees of President George W. Bush's Iraq adventure were positively giddy. Not only were they convinced that Iraq was on the fast track to peace, prosperity and perpetual friendliness with Washington, they believed that countries across the Greater Middle East were following close behind. Neo-conservative The Editors • 6 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (Summer 2005) Anderson, Betty. Nationalist Voices in Jordan: The Street and the State (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2005). Anderson, Irvine. Biblical Interpretation and Middle East Policy: The Promised Land, America and Israel, 1917-2002 (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2005). Arat, Yeşi The Editors • 1 min read
