Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Current Analysis

Title VI and Middle East Studies

In the past few years, pro-Israel groups have mounted an escalating and concerted effort to set the contours of scholarly debate about Israel on American campuses. This fall, two such organizations, the AMCHA Initiative and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, are lobbying Congre

Bekah Wolf • 9 min read

Current Analysis

Palestine, Adrift at the Met

Opera is dying in New York. Or at least it was until last month.

Bayann Hamid • 7 min read

Current Analysis

Losing Hope in Iran and Egypt

The decision to leave your country, especially when you leave for political or ideological reasons, can be gut-wrenching. My parents made that decision for me when they left Iran in my early adolescence. Unlike some Iranians forced to flee, my parents were not members of a persecuted religious minor

Parastou Hassouri • 3 min read

An Interview with Mohamed Elshahed — editors_110714

Current Analysis

An Interview with Mohamed Elshahed

Mohamed Elshahed is a young, dynamic architect and researcher who is documenting changes to urban space in Egypt at his highly popular blog Cairobserver [http://cairobserver.com/]. Elshahed completed a doctorate in Middle East studies at New York University and is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Be

The Editors • 7 min read

Current Analysis

Burying the Hatchet with Iran

Don’t tell anyone, but the United States and Iran are getting closer -- perhaps closer than ever -- to letting go of 35 years of enmity. No, Washington and Tehran aren’t going to be BFFs or anything. But they do share a common interest in rolling back the so-called Islamic State, whose well-armed

Chris Toensing • 2 min read

Current Analysis

Life and Death in the Graves of Mecca and Medina

On September 1 The Independent published a piece by Andrew Johnson [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudis-risk-new-muslim-division-with-proposal-to-move-mohameds-tomb-9705120.html] detailing plans by the Saudi state to move the final resting place of the Prophet Muhammad from th

John M. Willis • 4 min read

Current Analysis

Ghosts of the Future

Hatay -- a Turkish province on the border with Syria that is now flooded with Syrian refugees -- has a special status in Turkey. In the words of a Syrian doctor to whom we spoke in the summer of 2014 and who failed to get a residency permit to live there, “It’s like [the province] is not exactly par

Nick Danforth, Noga Malkin • 9 min read

Current Analysis

The Cold Realities of US Policy in Israel-Palestine

During the summertime war in Gaza, the two most progressive members of the US Senate stirred up controversy among their backers with expressions of uncritical support for Israel. At a town hall meeting, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the lone Senate independent, responded to a questioner that Israel had

Mitchell Plitnick • 15 min read

Current Analysis

Security and Resilience Among Syrian Refugees in Jordan

Imagine living in a refugee camp. For most, that phrase is enough to conjure images of makeshift tents, dusty pathways, queues for water and food, and above all, fear. Now imagine living in Zaatari refugee camp in a northern part of Jordan 7.5 miles from the Syrian border and Dar‘a region, sharing a

Denis Sullivan, Sarah Tobin • 14 min read

Current Analysis

Southern Yemen After the Fall of Sanaa

The mysteries in the September events in Sanaa [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/world/middleeast/yemens-prime-minister-resigns-amid-chaos-and-another-cease-fire.html?_r=0] loom large. Who decided that security forces should not try to stop the Houthis from entering the Yemeni capital? Why didn’t H

Susanne Dahlgren • 3 min read

Current Analysis

Airstrikes Against the Patriarchy

The media sometimes has trouble conjuring a feel-good story out of an airstrike, but not now. In the last few days, news outlets across the world have fallen all over themselves to champion Maryam al-Mansouri [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/26/world/middleeast/emirates-first-female-fighter-pilot-isi

Amanda Ufheil-Somers • 3 min read

Current Analysis

The Arab Bank and Washington’s Protectorate in the Levant

One stated justification for US strikes in Syria and Iraq is to protect the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Pete Moore • 2 min read