Current Analysis Cyprus' Continuously Returning Past The April 18 victory of a nationalist candidate in the Turkish Cypriot presidential election threw international observers of the Cyprus negotiations into mourning. They had to bid farewell to Mehmet Ali Talat, the leftist leader who had swept to power in 2004 in the wake of a popular revolution aga Rebecca Bryant • 13 min read
Current Analysis Outlaws of the Mediterranean At 4 am Eastern Mediterranean time on May 31, elite Israeli commandos rappelled from helicopters onto the deck of the Turkish-registered ship Mavi Marmara, part of an international “Freedom Flotilla” that had met in Cyprus and then set sail to deliver humanitarian relief supplies to the besieged Gaza Strip. The The Editors • 11 min read
Current Analysis Sects and the City I had almost forgotten I’d sent in an application when the e-mail message appeared, like Mr. Big, out of nowhere. “Hi, Moustafa,” it began, as if we were old friends. “Thank you for e-mailing us regarding your interest in working on ‘Sex and the City 2.’ ” Moustafa Bayoumi • 3 min read
Current Analysis A Web Smaller Than a Divide At first glance, there’s a clear need for expanding the Web beyond the Latin alphabet, including in the Arabic-speaking world. According to the Madar Research Group, about 56 million Arabs, or 17 percent of the Arab world, use the Internet, and those numbers are expected to grow 50 percent over the Sinan Antoon • 2 min read
Current Analysis A New Conversation Peace Iyad Allawi, the not terribly popular interim premier of post-Saddam Iraq, is in a position to form a government again because he won over the Sunni Arabs residing north and west of Baghdad in the March 7 elections. The vote, while it did not “shove political sectarianism in Iraq toward the grave,” Chris Toensing • 3 min read
Current Analysis Washington Must Pressure Israel to Stop Illegal Settlements “Insulting” is how Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described Israel’s treatment of Vice President Joe Biden during his recent trip to Israel, to support peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. It’s hard to dispute that assessment. After meeting with Israeli officials and declaring Bayann Hamid • 2 min read
Current Analysis The Race Is On “We are so racially profiled now, as a group,” the Arab-American comedian Dean Obeidallah says in his routine, “that I heard a correspondent on CNN not too long ago say the expression, ‘Arabs are the new blacks.’ That Arabs are the new blacks.” Obeidallah continues: Moustafa Bayoumi • 32 min read
Current Analysis The Sectarian Incident That Won't Go Away When violence breaks out between Egypt’s Muslim majority and Coptic Christian minority, the Egyptian government is normally quick to deny that the motive could be sectarian. Spokesmen point to “foreign fingers” that are supposedly stirring up sedition, in hopes that the file on the incident can be c Mariz Tadros • 13 min read
Current Analysis Confronting Settlement Expansion in East Jerusalem The neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, a 20-minute walk up the hill from the Damascus Gate to the Old City of Jerusalem, has become the focal point of the struggle over the expanding project of Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Joel Beinin • 11 min read
Current Analysis Egypt's Wall In late December 2009, Arab TV channels aired footage of throngs of demonstrators, surrounded by the usual rows of riot police, on the streets of downtown Cairo and in front of foreign embassies. Street protests in Egypt have been sharply curtailed in the last few years, but the scene was familiar t Ursula Lindsey • 16 min read
Current Analysis Arming Yemen Against Al-Qaeda Americans got a crash course on Yemen for Christmas. That’s because we’ve wanted to know more about the little-known, dirt-poor country in southwestern Arabia where the “underwear bomber” who tried to blow up a plane -- bound for Detroit from Nigeria on Christmas Day -- says he was trained. Preside Sheila Carapico • 2 min read
Current Analysis Catcher's Mitt Pakistan lies at the heart of President Barack Obama’s plan to wind down America’s war in Afghanistan. If -- as he avers -- the “overarching goal” is to “disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” the war will be fought mainly in Pakistan. With fewer than a hundred fighters Graham Usher • 10 min read
