Current Analysis Orange Rampant Israel’s national colors are blue and white. In the summer of 2005, however, an Israeli driver adorning his vehicle with ribbons in those hues runs the risk of a broken antenna or a vandal’s scratches in the paint job. Conversely, the motorist would be far safer joining what appears to be the genera Peretz Kidron • 9 min read
Current Analysis Killing Live 8, Noisily The organizers of Live 8, the week-long, celebrity-driven musical campaign for increased aid and debt relief for poverty-stricken nations, plugged their July 6 concert in an Edinburgh stadium as “a celebration of the largest and loudest cry to make poverty history the world has ever seen.” By rush hour the Sheila Carapico • 8 min read
Current Analysis Paradox and Possibility in Iran's Presidential Election Just a short time ago, the Iranian presidential election being held on June 17, 2005 was regarded as a non-event. The prospect that the election would advance debates over political reform and democratization appeared weak, in the shadow of the self-described defeat of Iran’s parliamentary reformist movement and the Mohammad Maljoo, Arang Keshavarzian • 8 min read
Current Analysis Reform Retreats Amid Jordan's Political Storms For weeks in the spring of 2005, banners advertising an international gathering at the Dead Sea resort of Shouna adorned every main street in Jordan’s capital city of Amman. The government was touting what it regarded as a significant national success: for the third year in a row, the Curtis Ryan • 10 min read
Current Analysis US Stays with Egyptian Dictator “America will stand with the allies of freedom to support democratic movements in the Middle East and beyond, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.” With these soaring words in the 2005 State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush swore to overturn the long-standing US polic Chris Toensing • 3 min read
Current Analysis Mahmoud Abbas’ Mission Improbable Renewed, if somewhat less euphoric talk of a historic opportunity for Middle East peace accompanied Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas both heading to and returning from his May 26, 2005 summit with President George W. Bush at the White House. Yet the opportunity, of which much has been written since Mouin Rabbani, Chris Toensing • 10 min read
Current Analysis Elections Pose Lebanon's Old Questions Anew Watching a wave of peaceful protests compel the Lebanese government to resign on February 28, 2005, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli hailed the victory of a “Cedar Revolution” in line with, among others, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and “the Purple Revolution in Baghdad.” Ereli went on to claim that Sateh Nourredine, Laurie King-Irani • 11 min read
Current Analysis Après Nous, Nous It was vintage Shimon Peres. On April 18 Israel’s deputy prime minister emerged from a tete-à-tete with French President Jacques Chirac proclaiming a shining vision of Israeli-Palestinian coexistence. “We could convert a settlement into a Club Med,” he suggested. “We must not wait for the political solution, but create Thomas Hill, Peter Lagerquist • 14 min read
Current Analysis Beating a Slow, Stubborn Retreat at Guantanamo Bay Just under a week after the collapse of the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan, President George W. Bush issued Military Order 1 to establish principles for the “ detention, treatment and trial of certain non-citizens in the war against terrorism.” The order, promulgated on November 13, 2001, was the fir Charles Schmitz • 21 min read
Current Analysis Darfur and the International Criminal Court On March 31, 2005, the United Nations issued another response to the vast crisis in the Darfur region of far western Sudan, referring various conspicuous violations of international law to the International Criminal Court. Though there have been five previous UN Security Council resolutions bearing on Darfur, the response contained Eric Reeves • 12 min read
Current Analysis For Arab World Peace, More Voices Need Attention Pundits on the right have been quick to say the Bush administration deserves credit for sparking democratic rumblings across the Middle East. They note the popular protests against Syrian influence in Lebanon and Egyptian President Husni Mubarak ’s pledge to allow multiple candidates to run in the p Waleed Hazbun, Michelle Woodward • 2 min read
Current Analysis Commemorating Lebanon’s War Amid Continued Crisis At midnight on April 13, ringing church bells and the call to prayer echoed across Beirut. These haunting sounds intermingled over Martyrs’ Square, the unfinished main plaza of old Beirut where thousands of Lebanese have been mixing, day and night, since the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri in Laurie King-Irani • 14 min read
