Current Analysis Dismantling the Matrix of Control Almost a decade ago I wrote an article describing Israel’s “matrix of control” over the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It consisted then of three interlocking systems: military administration of much of the West Bank and incessant army and air force intrusions elsewhere; a skein of “facts on the Jeff Halper • 14 min read
Current Analysis Democracy, Lebanese-Style Just as reports from Lebanon were indicating that a cabinet would be finalized within days, the notoriously fickle Druze leader Walid Jumblatt announced, on August 2, that his Progressive Socialist Party would withdraw from the governing coalition. Jumblatt criticized his coalition partners in the M Melani Cammett • 15 min read
Current Analysis Rachel Corrie in Palestine…and in San Francisco The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, the oldest such festival in the United States, was founded in rebellion against received wisdom. Since 1980, the festival has promoted independent Jewish films that contest the conventional Hollywood depiction of Jewish life, particularly its lachrymose over-c Joel Beinin • 16 min read
Current Analysis The Day After “Victory”: Kuwait’s 2009 Election and the Contentious Present The May 2009 parliamentary election in Kuwait produced a number of surprising results. Occurring on the fourth anniversary of the achievement of full political rights for Kuwaiti women, the outcome attracting the most commentary was the victory of four female candidates. But there were other happeni Mohammed Al-Ghanim, Mary Ann Tétreault • 18 min read
Current Analysis Tehran, June 2009 The morning after Iran’s June 12 presidential election, Iranians booted up their computers to find Fars News, the online mouthpiece of the Islamic Republic’s security apparatus, heralding the dawn of a “third revolution.” Many an ordinary Iranian, and many a Western pundit, had already adopted such Kaveh Ehsani, Norma Claire Moruzzi, Arang Keshavarzian • 19 min read
Current Analysis An Artist as President of the Islamic Republic of Iran? Something’s happening here. In one of the largest street demonstrations in Tehran since the 1979 revolution, thousands filled Vali Asr Street (formerly known as Pahlavi Street) on Monday, forming a human chain nearly 12 miles long and stopping traffic for nearly five hours. They wore strips of green Shiva Balaghi • 7 min read
Current Analysis Old Wine in Older Skins On June 8, when all votes are cast and counted between the glitzy urban quarters of Beirut and the dusty hamlets of the Bekaa valley, the Lebanese elections will have produced one certain winner: the local advertising industry. Despite a newly imposed cap on campaign spending, candidates have been f Heiko Wimmen • 17 min read
Current Analysis The Shi‘a of Saudi Arabia at a Crossroads Deep in the morass of YouTube lies a disturbing video clip recorded in late February at the cemetery of al-Baqi‘ and on surrounding streets in Medina, Saudi Arabia. An initial caption promises images of “desecration of graves.” Al-Baqi‘, located next to the mosque of the prophet Muhammad in the seco Toby Matthiesen • 16 min read
Current Analysis Pakistan’s Troubled “Paradise on Earth” Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in areas of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) as the army has launched ground operations and air raids to “eliminate and expel” the Islamist militant groups commonly known as the Tehreek-e Taliban or the Taliban in Pakistan (TIP). The ta Kamran Asdar Ali • 12 min read
Current Analysis Western Sahara Poser for UN Morocco serves as the backdrop for such Hollywood blockbusters as Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and Body of Lies. The country’s breathtaking landscapes and gritty urban neighbourhoods are the perfect setting for Hollywood’s imagination. Unbeknown to most filmgoers, however, is that Morocco is embroile Jacob Mundy • 3 min read
Current Analysis The Reawakened Specter of Iraqi Civil War April has already been a cruel month in Iraq. A spate of bombings aimed at Shi‘i civilians in Baghdad has raised fears that the grim sectarian logic that led the capital to civil war in 2005-2007 will reassert itself. On April 6, a string of six car bombs killed at least 37 people; the next day, sho Michael Wahid Hanna • 12 min read
Current Analysis Bouteflika’s Triumph and Algeria’s Tragedy Shoes and pants soaked with rain, I tagged along with a journalist from the popular Arabic daily Echorouk—his paper my umbrella—while he visited polling stations in the Belcourt neighborhood of Algiers on the day of local elections in November 2007. At the first site, disgruntled party officials qui Jacob Mundy • 14 min read
