Current Analysis New Documentary on US Military's Migrant Workers Starting today, Al Jazeera’s “Fault Lines” will air “America’s War Workers [http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/7/after-12-years-ofwarlaborabusesrampantonusbasesinafghanistan.html],” a documentary by MERIP editor Anjali Kamat (@anjucomet [http://twitter.com/anjucomet]) on the use of migrant Darryl Li • 2 min read
Current Analysis "Journalists Are the Eyes of the World" on Guantánamo Lisa Hajjar’s spring lecture tour, entitled “Let’s Go to Guantánamo! An On-the-Ground Perspective on the Military Commissions,” explores secret renditions, black sites, torture, suppression of evidence, clandestineness and what it means to provide “legal counsel” to detainees in the post-September 1 Sheila Carapico • 2 min read
Current Analysis The Battle for Nazareth By order of the Israeli Supreme Court [http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/1.573700], Nazareth will reconduct its mayoral election on March 11. The city is once again the site of an acrimonious political battle. Municipal elections were held in Nazareth, along with the rest of the country, on Octo Leena Dallasheh • 3 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 Our Primer on Israel-Palestine Some 43 years ago, a group of activists in the movement to end the war in Vietnam founded the Middle East Research and Information Project. The impetus was that the American public, including the anti-war left, was poorly informed about the Middle East and the US role [https://www.jacobinmag.com/20 The Editors • 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 Sisi Shuffle This morning Egypt’s military-installed cabinet resigned en masse [http://madamasr.com/content/beblawi’s-government-resigns ]. Initial comment implies that the resignations were a surprise but nonetheless fit into a pattern of events paving the way for a presidential run by Field Marshal ‘Abd al-Fat Joshua Stacher • 2 min read
colla_022414 Current Analysis Looking for the Three of Diamonds A few years ago, I began work on a crime novel set in Iraq [http://www.bitterlemonpress.com/new-books/american-crime-fiction/baghdad-central.asp]. I borrowed the name of a real-life person, Muhsin Khadr al-Khafaji, as a writing prompt. Taking this man’s name seemed like nothing since my character wa Elliott Colla • 5 min read
Current Analysis The Battle Over Higher Education in Iran The educated middle class that played an influential role in electing Hassan Rouhani to the Iranian presidency in June 2013 is anxious to see his promises of “prudence and hope” fulfilled. One area that Rouhani’s administration is expected to reform is higher education, which was targeted for politi Mohammad Ali Kadivar • 10 min read
Current Analysis (No) Dialogue in Bahrain In the run-up to the third anniversary of the Bahraini uprising on February 14, 2011, mass protests with tens of thousands of participants again engulfed the small kingdom. At the same time, a number of contacts between the opposition and the royal family sparked hopes of renewed high-level negotiat Toby Matthiesen • 11 min read
Current Analysis Seeing Through the Fog Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel was full of tough talk when he visited the island kingdom of Bahrain in early December. The United States, he vowed, will continue to guard “the free flow of energy and commerce” from the Persian Gulf and keep Iran nuclear-free, through the presence of 35,000 US mil Amanda Ufheil-Somers • 2 min read
Current Analysis Collective Frustration, But No Collective Action, in Qatar In late June 2013, as neighboring Arab states continued their struggles against popular pressure for political reform or regime change, the Gulf emirate of Qatar undertook its own, voluntary transfer of power. Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, patriarch of modern Qatar, appeared on state television t Justin Gengler • 8 min read