Current Analysis Palestinians Prepare for the Worst Speaking on April 1, Palestinian Authority (PA) Minister of Information and Culture Yasser Abed Rabbo described the current Israeli-Palestinian relationship as "open warfare." While his characterization may have been premature, it was anything but an April fool's joke. During Ehud Barak's short and chaotic Mouin Rabbani • 6 min read
Current Analysis Frosty Reception for US Religious Freedom Commission in Egypt What if you had a party and no one came? On March 22, members of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)—visiting Cairo on a fact-finding tour—waited in vain for members of Egyptian political parties and civil society groups to arrive at the commission's Vickie Langohr • 7 min read
Current Analysis Violence and its Rhetoric One week after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's warm welcome to Washington, there can be little doubt of US support for continuing Israeli aggression in the Palestinian territories. On March 28, in response to a suicide attack just inside the Israeli border, Israeli helicopter gunships bombed the Palestinian Authority Rebecca L. Stein • 6 min read
Current Analysis Assessing the Iraqi Opposition The once moribund Iraqi National Congress (INC) has apparently gained a new lease on life. After weeks of intensive talks in Washington, Ahmad Chalabi—leader of the self-appointed Iraqi opposition in exile—visited Iran to establish a base for sending roughly 100 INC operatives into northern Iraq to gather intelligence Faleh A. Jabar • 7 min read
Current Analysis Sharon's National Unity Government Ariel Sharon's governing coalition, embracing both Shimon Peres and hardline rejectionists, exposes the contradictions in the conventional left-right distinctions in Israeli politics. Over seven years after the Oslo accords, it is clear that Israeli leaders never envisioned a truly viable and sovereign Palestinian state, only a "peace& Jeff Halper • 6 min read
Current Analysis No-Fly Zones In the long years of confrontation between the US and Iraq, an almost symbiotic relationship has developed between US and Iraqi efforts to raise the political and military stakes. The latest clashes in the no-fly zones, culminating in the February 16 US-UK attack on Iraqi command and control sites north Sarah J Graham-Brown • 7 min read
Current Analysis Caught in the Middle Women will be a key constituency in Iran's upcoming May presidential election, which is widely regarded as a referendum on the "reform" movement symbolized by President Mohammad Khatami. Though women voters can be found across the Iranian political spectrum, one group—women journalists—will continue to Persheng Vaziri • 5 min read
Current Analysis Ethiopia-Eritrea Peace Process Creeps Forward Two months after Eritrea and Ethiopia signed a pact to end their two-year border war, an agreement to move ahead with its implementation has finally been ironed out. The 4,000 UN troops brought here to monitor the truce are preparing for deployment to the contested frontier. Meanwhile, hundreds of t Dan Connell • 4 min read
Current Analysis Israel Elects Sharon On February 6, Israel elected its first settler prime minister. Premier-elect Ariel Sharon, who has given his negotiators ten days to forge a "national unity" government with Labor, maintains an official residence in Old Jerusalem's Muslim Quarter. In a landslide victory, Sharon received 62.5 percent Oren Yiftachel • 6 min read
Current Analysis Iran's Conservatives Face the Electorate In May, Iranians will go to the polls to pass judgment on the record of President Mohammad Khatami and the reform movement he symbolizes. Although observers of Iran typically characterize the Islamic Republic's factional divisions as a single left-right split dividing the regime into unified "reform Arang Keshavarzian • 5 min read
Current Analysis Almost Unnoticed When Turkey sent 10,000 soldiers into northern Iraq in late December 2000, the event passed almost unnoticed by the international media. For the majority of ordinary Kurds, Turkish incursions into Iraqi Kurdistan have become routine. As on previous occasions, Turkish special troops crossed the border to hunt fighters of Isam al-Khafaji • 6 min read
Current Analysis The Case of Azmi Bishara Two months ago, Israel's attorney general Elyakim Rubinstein formally accused Azmi Bishara, a prominent Arab-Palestinian member of the Knesset, of endangering the security of the Israeli state. Rubinstein's charges led the large majority of the Knesset, in a potentially historic vote, to lift Bishara's Gad Barzilai • 5 min read
