Current Analysis 'Assaf, Palestine and the "Forgotten Palestinians" For months Arab television watchers have been engrossed in the phenomenon of Muhammad ‘Assaf, the 23-year old Gazan singer who has now been crowned the winner [http://www.mbc.net/ar/programs/arab-idol-s2/videos/live-performance/finals/articles/%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF-%D8%B9%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%81-%D9%8A Leena Dallasheh • 3 min read
Current Analysis Power Corrupts Secretary of State John Kerry has staked his credibility on reviving the Middle East peace process. Supporting this effort on the world stage will be high on Samantha Power’s agenda, should her nomination as US ambassador to the United Nations be confirmed. But though she will urge Israelis, Palesti Jamie Stern-Weiner • 4 min read
Current Analysis Wrapped in Surprise, Stuffed with Politics Many Iranians are pinching themselves and smiling uncontrollably after Hassan Rowhani’s victory in the June 14 presidential election. The purple-clad campaigners for Rowhani (or Mohammad Reza Aref, who stepped aside for Rowhani a few days before the balloting) still taste the bitterness of 2009, whe Arang Keshavarzian • 3 min read
Current Analysis In Search of the Building Blocks of Opposition in Turkey In early May, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan -- flush with a decade of electoral triumphs and a track record of economic growth dwarfing that of the European Union he once vowed to join -- had the luxury of being magnanimous. Joseph Logan • 9 min read
MER Article Mikhail, Water on Sand Alan Mikhail, ed., Water on Sand: Environmental Histories of the Middle East and North Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012). This fascinating volume provides an excellent overview of how environmental perspectives can enrich Middle East studies, thanks to contributions from leading schola Jeannie Sowers • 3 min read
MER Article Antoon, Ya Maryam Sinan Antoon, Ya Maryam (Beirut/Baghdad: Dar al-Jamal, 2012). Isis Nusair • 3 min read
Current Analysis How to Help Syria Now The appalling civil war in Syria is well into its third year. With upwards of 70,000 dead, countless numbers maimed and injured, and millions of refugees, there are recurrent calls for the United States to “do something” to end the mayhem. That “something” is usually defined as military intervention Chris Toensing • 2 min read
Current Analysis Syria's Disabled Future Jamal is not yet a teenager. His school closed in 2011, soon after the Syrian revolution turned into an armed conflict, and his father found him a factory job. One day in 2012 as he returned from work there was a battle going on in the main street near his home. Jamal immediately started carrying wo Edward Thomas • 11 min read
Current Analysis The Syrian Heartbreak There was a distinctive sense of national pride in Syria. It flowed from the confidence of a civilization dating back to the times of the earliest alphabets and visible in the country’s wealth of archaeological sites, including some of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It came f Sarah Birke, Peter Harling • 19 min read
Current Analysis Futile Military Financing One of the more regrettable things that Uncle Sam does with your tax dollars is sending $3.1 billion in military aid to Israel every year. He’ll be doing that until 2018 -- and probably after, unless Americans decide enough is enough. When President Barack Obama traveled to Israel in March, he was Chris Toensing • 2 min read
Current Analysis North African Commonalities (part two) Bill Lawrence is director of the North Africa Project for the International Crisis Group. He is a former Peace Corps volunteer (Morocco), Fulbright scholar (Tunisia), development consultant (Egypt), State Department official, Arabic translator and filmmaker (Marrakech Inshallah, Moroccans in Boston) David McMurray • 7 min read
Current Analysis North African Commonalities (part one) Bill Lawrence is director of the North Africa Project for the International Crisis Group. He is a former Peace Corps volunteer (Morocco), Fulbright scholar (Tunisia), development consultant (Egypt), State Department official, Arabic translator and filmmaker (Marrakech Inshallah, Moroccans in Boston) David McMurray • 9 min read
