Current Analysis A Grim New Phase in Yemen’s Migration History “Yemen’s conflict is getting so bad that some Yemenis are fleeing to Somalia,” read a recent headline at the Vice News website. The article mentions [https://news.vice.com/article/yemens-conflict-is-getting-so-bad-that-some-yemenis-are-fleeing-to-somalia?utm_source=vicenewstwitter] that 32 Yemenis, Marina de Regt • 3 min read
MER Article Gopal, No Good Men Among the Living Anand Gopal, No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban and the War Through Afghan Eyes (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2014). “There are no good men among the living, and no bad ones among the dead.” In the simplest sense, this Pashtun proverb is similar to the common injunction not to spea (Author not identified) • 3 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
Current Analysis Operation Decisive Storm and the Expanding Counter-Revolution On the night of March 25 one hundred Saudi warplanes bombed strategic targets inside Yemen under the control of the Houthi rebels. A number of countries—the other Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) members minus Oman, as well as Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Morocco and Pakistan—joined the effort either directl John M. Willis • 4 min read
Current Analysis Four Weddings and a Funeral in Yemen On February 21, 2015, the man most countries recognize as president of Yemen, ‘Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, escaped house arrest in Sanaa and fled with his family to the southern city of Aden, which he soon declared the new capital. The Houthi movement, or Ansar Allah, that holds sway in Sanaa insists th Susanne Dahlgren • 11 min read
Current Analysis Beinin, Beers and Israel-Palestine in Cleveland MERIP contributing editor Joel Beinin [http://www.merip.org/author/joel-beinin] came to Cleveland in early March to discuss the popular struggle against Israeli occupation in the West Bank as well as what was at stake in yesterday’s Israeli elections. His host was the Northeast Ohio Consortium on Mi Joshua Stacher • 1 min read
Current Analysis Seltzer Colonialism Early each morning, dozens of workers from Jaba’ walk up a narrow set of stairs with trash strewn on either side to reach a bus stop on Highway 60, which bisects the West Bank on its way from Nazareth to Beersheva. As they climb the stairs, the workers pass a tunnel that once allowed villagers conve Michael Fin, Callie Maidhof • 8 min read
Current Analysis The Politics of Egyptian Migration to Libya The beheading of 21 Egyptian Copts working in Libya, as shown in video footage released by the Islamic State on February 12, 2015, made headlines across the world. The story was variously framed as one more vicious murder of Middle Eastern Christians by militant Islamists, one more index of chaos in Gerasimos Tsourapas • 15 min read
Current Analysis Fuel Subsidy Policy and Popular Mobilization in Syria On February 17, Syrian Minister of Oil Muhammad al-Lahham warned Parliament that the price of fuel would have to increase [http://www.sana.sy/%D9%85%D8%AC%D9%84%D8%B3-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%B9%D8%A8-%D9%8A%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%85%D8%B9-%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%AC%D9%88%D8%A8%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9 Zachary Cuyler • 5 min read
Current Analysis Yemeni Political Dialogue in Riyadh? On March 10, the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) invited rival Yemeni factions to hold peace talks in Riyadh, the Saudi Royal Court announced [http://www.gulfinthemedia.com/index.php?id=741844&news_type=Top&lang=en ]. Gabriele vom Bruck • 2 min read
Current Analysis One Society of Muslim Brothers in Jordan or Two? Jordan’s government this week approved an application to make the Society of Muslim Brothers a licensed, local charity, paving the way for a break between the Jordanian branch of the Brothers and the regional organization based in Egypt. The move was resisted, however, not by the Jordanian governmen Curtis Ryan • 3 min read
Current Analysis Why Isn't the "Swing Producer" Swinging? The price of oil is hovering around $50 per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude, and $60 per barrel of Brent crude, the lowest levels since the global economic downturn [http://www.merip.org/mer/mer252] of 2008-2009. Until the end of February, when they rebounded slightly, oil prices had been dr Karen Pfeifer • 3 min read
