Current Analysis Gaza in the Vise Five-year-old Layan cupped her hands over her ears and screwed her eyes shut when she tried to describe the effect of a sonic boom. She said the sound scares her, even though her father, Muntasir Bahja, 32, a translator, has told her “a small lie to calm her”—that the boom is nothing more than a big Omar Karmi • 8 min read
Current Analysis Court Wrongly OKs Profiling Should the police be able to arrest you based on your religion and then imprison you indefinitely while they search for a crime to charge you with? Of course not. The very idea flies in the face of American jurisprudence, whose traditions guarantee due process, equal protection and the presumption Moustafa Bayoumi • 3 min read
Current Analysis The Power of The Guantánamo Bar Association If you doubt that we are still “a nation of laws,” you haven’t visited the American Civil Liberties Union web site to peruse the thousands of pages of government documents concerning the “war on terror” made available through Freedom of Information Act litigation. While Bush administration policy ma Lisa Hajjar • 4 min read
Current Analysis National Unity in Iraq — As One Government or Three? As Iraq continues to slide into civil war, there is certainly a crying need for fresh thinking. Though he finally admits sending a few “wrong signals” with his Iraq policy, President Bush still calls for staying the course. Not every alternative suggestion, however, is a good one. The latest bad id Sinan Antoon • 3 min read
Current Analysis Is Time on Iranian Women Protesters’ Side? In early June, Zanestan—an Iran-based online journal—announced a rally in Haft Tir Square, one of Tehran’s busiest, to protest legal discrimination suffered by Iranian women. The demonstration was also called to commemorate two landmark events in women’s struggle for equality in Iran. The first was the Ziba Mir-Hosseini • 16 min read
Current Analysis Let Cooler Heads Prevail on Iran Once again, President George W. Bush is hinting at preventive war—this time, ostensibly, to stop the Islamic Republic of Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Given the catastrophe that followed Bush’s last “non-proliferation war” in Iraq, and the deceit employed to sell it, one would expect the pub Shiva Balaghi, Chris Toensing • 3 min read
Current Analysis Under the Veil of Ideology When Iran’s hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” in October 2005, the world appeared to be light years away from the end of history. It seemed that ideologues had once more taken the reins of power and rejoined a battle in which there could be no parley Trita Parsi • 11 min read
Current Analysis Return of the Turkish “State of Exception” Diyarbakır, the political and cultural center of Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeastern provinces, displays its beauty in springtime. The surrounding plains and mountains, dusty and barren during the summer months, shine in shades of green and the rainbow colors of alpine flowers and herbs. Aro Kerem Öktem • 14 min read
Current Analysis Israel’s “Demographic Demon” in Court A low-key but injudicious war of words briefly broke out between Israel’s two most senior judges in the wake of the May 2006 decision by the Supreme Court to uphold the constitutionality of the Nationality and Entry into Israel Law. A temporary measure passed by the Knesset in July 2003, the law eff Jonathan Cook • 12 min read
Current Analysis How UN Pressure on Hizballah Impedes Lebanese Reform When the last Syrian soldier left Lebanese territory in April 2005, jubilant crowds gathered in Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square to celebrate the coming of a new era. In Washington and Paris, the mood was also festive, as officials praised what they called Lebanon’s “Cedar Revolution” as the first in Reinoud Leenders • 17 min read
Current Analysis We Need Negotiations, Not Saber-Rattling, With Iran “All options are on the table,” says President George W. Bush when asked about press reports that the Pentagon is drawing up plans to bomb Iran to derail the nuclear research program there. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei shoots back: "The Iranian nation will respond to any blow with do Kaveh Ehsani • 2 min read
Current Analysis The Emergence of a “Coptic Question” in Egypt In the early morning of April 14, 2006, Mahmoud Salah al-Din Abd al-Raziq, a Muslim, entered the church of Mar Girgis (Saint George) in Alexandria’s al-Hadra district and stabbed three parishioners who had gathered for a service. Abd al-Raziq then proceeded to attack worshippers at two other churche (Author not identified) • 14 min read
