li_121312 Current Analysis Khaled el-Masri and Empire's Oblivion Two of today’s headlines together provide a good example of the work of imperial forgetting. On the front page of the New York Times, a story [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/us/zero-dark-thirty-torture-scenes-reopen-debate.html?hpw&pagewanted=all&_r=1&] about the depiction of torture in the forth Darryl Li • 6 min read
Current Analysis Why the Anti-Mursi Protesters Are Right Perusing US media coverage and analysis of the crisis in Egypt over the last two weeks has been quite disappointing. As the protests against the elected president Muhammad Mursi escalate, the main players in the struggle and the stakes involved are often mischaracterized. Some might ask: Why does th Ahmad Shokr • 5 min read
Current Analysis Israel's "Operation Mow the Lawn" One can only imagine the nods of self-satisfaction when an Israel Defense Forces planner came up with “Pillar of Cloud” to name Israel’s subsequent eight-day aerial assault on Gaza. By lifting this metaphor from several well-known passages [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillar_of_a_cloud] in the Tora Steve Niva • 6 min read
Current Analysis Liberalism vs. Democracy in Egypt President Muhammad Mursi’s Thursday night address did not mollify protesters, but it clarified the stakes in any dialogue between his supporters and the National Salvation Front led by Mohamed ElBaradei, Hamdin Sabbahi and Amr Moussa. Jason Brownlee • 4 min read
Current Analysis Five Notes on Egypt's Crisis Hani Shukrallah, the distinguished former editor of al-Ahram Weekly, laments [http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/4/0/59933/Opinion//The-decline-and-fall-of-the-Muslim-Brotherhood.aspx] the “decline and fall” of the Society of Muslim Brothers from a partner in a diverse Egyptian nation to a narr Joshua Stacher • 4 min read
Current Analysis Four More Years The 2012 US presidential election elicited less interest among Palestinians than any such contest in living memory. While most Israelis, and their government in particular, expressed a clear preference for a Republican victory, Palestinians seemed resigned to continuity in US foreign policy irrespec Mouin Rabbani, Chris Toensing • 11 min read
Current Analysis Condi-ist Manifesto In one of the most nonsensical sentences published in the Washington Post since the US invasion of Iraq, and perhaps ever, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice writes in a November 23 op-ed [http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/condoleezza-rice-syria-is-central-to-holding-together-the-middle Sheila Carapico • 2 min read
Current Analysis Blisters and Sanctions It was February 1987, at the front lines near Khorramshahr, in the south of Iran along the Iraqi border. We had been engaged in heavy battles for over a week. Our troops had penetrated fortified Iraqi positions, and the Iraqis were making us pay: Artillery and mortar shells rained down on us with a Shahriar Khateri, Narges Bajoghli • 6 min read
Current Analysis Inside Israel's Twitter War Room Within hours of the onset of Operation Pillar of Defense, Israel’s latest military campaign in the Gaza Strip, global news outlets had already turned their spotlight on social media. A raft of stories led with the Israel Defense Forces’ use of the popular networking platforms to advance their public Rebecca L. Stein • 9 min read
Current Analysis Why Not Jordan? The November 13 withdrawal of fuel and electricity subsidies has sparked vigorous demonstrations [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/11/13/protests-break-out-in-jordan-mention-king-by-name/] in Jordan, prompting renewed speculation about whether the wave of Arab uprisings that be Pete Moore • 4 min read
Current Analysis Behind the Kurdish Hunger Strike in Turkey To hear Mazlum Tekdağ’s story is enough to understand why 700 Kurdish political prisoners have gone on hunger strike in Turkey. His father was murdered by the state in front of his Diyarbakır pastry shop in 1993, when Mazlum was just nine years old. His uncle Ali was kidnapped by an army-backed deat Jake Hess • 17 min read
Current Analysis Six Questions for Fareed Mohamedi It’s like clockwork: When the race for the White House is on, the contestants will promise to make America self-sufficient in energy. Everyone understands this concept to mean less dependence on imported oil from the Middle East, though politicians do not always come out and say so. The implication Chris Toensing • 6 min read
