Current Analysis Beinart's Boycott The New York Times has done it again. For the second time in a month its op-ed page features an article calling for a (qualified) boycott of Israeli products. The latest installment [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/opinion/to-save-israel-boycott-the-settlements.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&pagewanted=all Joel Beinin • 2 min read
Current Analysis Threat Inflation via Memory Lane In 2005, Yale professor Philip Smith published a fascinating book Why War? to examine the “cultural logic” underpinning three major Middle East conflicts involving Western democracies -- the 1956 tripartite aggression in Suez, the 1991 Gulf war and the 2003 Iraq war. Smith’s thesis is that, while “hard” geopolitical Chris Toensing • 4 min read
Current Analysis Meanwhile, in Yemen... War is breaking out between the Yemeni military and a group called “Ansar al-Shari‘a” in the southern province of Abyan -- and it is in danger of spreading. Somewhere between 100 and 200 soldiers are being buried after battles [http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jVSJakuO6RiI-f26iNrwp Sheila Carapico • 2 min read
Current Analysis Libya's Lessons Libya is commonly counted as a success story among the ongoing Arab uprisings. NATO bombing, the story goes, saved thousands of lives and allowed Libyans to overthrow the absurd and murderous Muammar Qaddafi. The intervention proves that the West has aligned its interests in the Arab world with its Chris Toensing • 2 min read
Current Analysis War Drums and Obama For the last three weeks or so, liberal commentators have repeatedly insisted that the Obama administration bears little to no responsibility for the ever louder beating of the Iran war drums. Whatever such sounds the White House makes are just pre-election theater necessitated by Republican attacks, they say, or reflexive Chris Toensing • 4 min read
Current Analysis Beyond the Fall of the Syrian Regime Syrians are approaching the one-year anniversary of what has become the most tragic, far-reaching and uncertain episode of the Arab uprisings. Since protesters first took to the streets in towns and villages across the country in March 2011, they have paid an exorbitant price in a domestic crisis th Sarah Birke, Peter Harling • 16 min read
Current Analysis The Myth of Israel's Liberal Supreme Court Exposed Little more than a decade ago, in a brief interlude of heady optimism about the prospects of regional peace, the Israeli Supreme Court issued two landmark rulings that, it was widely assumed, heralded the advent of a new, post-Zionist era for Israel. But with two more watershed judgments handed down Jonathan Cook • 23 min read
Current Analysis BDS in the News Unusually, on February 21 the New York Times carried an op-ed [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/opinion/peaceful-protest-can-free-palestine.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212] by a prominent Palestinian political figure, Mustafa Barghouthi. Joel Beinin • 2 min read
Current Analysis Anthony Shadid, 1968-2012 We at MERIP are shocked and deeply saddened by the loss of Anthony Shadid, an extraordinary reporter, wondrously talented writer, judicious analyst of Middle East affairs, warm, generous person and good friend. In between sojourns in the Middle East, Anthony served on our editorial committee from 2 Chris Toensing • 6 min read
Current Analysis Traditions of Tahrir BBC Radio 4 broadcast a quite interesting program [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019fxjf] last Wednesday (as of now, it is still available for listening), in the run-up to the first anniversary of the Egyptian uprising that toppled Mubarak. It featured Reem Kelani [http://reemkelani.com/index.asp Ted Swedenburg • 3 min read
Current Analysis Dramas of the Authoritarian State During August of 2011, which corresponded with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, viewers of the state-run satellite channel Syrian TV might have stumbled upon quite a strange scene: A man watches as a crowd chants “Hurriyya, hurriyya!” This slogan -- “Freedom, freedom!” -- is a familiar rallying cry Donatella Della Ratta • 14 min read
Current Analysis Strategic Commodity 201 Goodness! Look at this marxisant rubbish: Chris Toensing • 3 min read
