Current Analysis Negotiating Over the Clinton Plan The flurry of diplomatic activity designed to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian treaty prior to US President Bill Clinton's January 20 departure from the White House appears to be bearing fruit. January 3 the White House announced that Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat had accepted "with reservations" the Mouin Rabbani • 6 min read
Current Analysis Turkey's Operation "Return to Life" During the week of December 19-26, 2000, 10,000 Turkish soldiers violently occupied 48 prisons to end two months of hunger strikes and "death fasts" by hundreds of political prisoners. The hunger strikers are protesting the state's plan to transfer its prisoners from large wards to Murat Paker • 6 min read
Current Analysis Beyond the Bibi Bill December 18 the Knesset partially amended Israel's electoral law—the so-called "Bibi bill"—allowing Binyamin Netanyahu to run against Ehud Barak for prime minister. The law had stipulated that when a government resigns, as Barak's did December 9, elections are held for the prime ministership only, a Jeff Halper • 6 min read
Current Analysis On Hold As Florida recounts distracted the international media, Israeli tanks and helicopters continued to bombard towns and villages throughout the West Bank and Gaza. Following the bombing of a settler bus, Israel launched a massive strike on Gaza November 20, in which helicopter gunships, boats and tanks shelled Gaza City, Jabaliya, Adam Hanieh • 5 min read
Current Analysis Cracks in Egypt's Electoral Engineering November 8 marks the beginning of the third and final round of elections to the lower house of parliament in Egypt, the largest Arab country and the second-largest recipient of US foreign aid. With 282 of the 444 races now complete, results so far have included a strikingly poor showing Vickie Langohr • 6 min read
Current Analysis The Peres-Arafat Agreement: Can It Work? Within hours of the November 2 announcement that PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and the Israeli Minister of Regional Cooperation, Shimon Peres, had agreed to implement the understandings reached between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) at the October Sharm al-Sheikh summit, Israeli soldiers sho Mouin Rabbani • 7 min read
Current Analysis Hizballah Outside and In Five months after the withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon, Hizballah refuses to go away. In early October, Hizballah made headlines in its struggle against Israel by kidnapping three Israeli soldiers, and a fourth man, Elhanan Tannenbaum, accused of spying on Israel's behalf. The high-profile abductions were Michael Young • 4 min read
Current Analysis Shows of Solidarity Forever Egyptian President Husni Mubarak and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Asad will convene an Arab summit in Cairo this weekend to formulate a common stance against the harsh Israeli response to the ongoing Palestinian uprising in the Occupied Territories and within Israel. The summit, the first in ove Isam al-Khafaji • 6 min read
Current Analysis Yemen and the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army One of the leads investigators are following into the October 12 Aden harbor bombing of the USS Cole is an obscure network known (or perhaps formerly known) as the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army. Terrorism experts are familiar with this group's past missions, including attacks on Yemeni socialists prior to Sheila Carapico • 5 min read
Current Analysis After the Sharm al-Sheikh Summit Details of the understandings reached between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Yasser Arafat are trickling slowly out of Sharm al-Sheikh, the Egyptian resort where President Bill Clinton convened an emergency international summit October 16. The Israelis and the PA say they will both take " Mouin Rabbani • 5 min read
Current Analysis The Iron Fist in the Peace Process Televised images of Israeli combat soldiers killing unarmed Palestinian children and helicopters strafing Palestinian neighborhoods have publicly exposed the Israeli military force that undergirds and shapes the Oslo process. Roger Normand • 5 min read
Current Analysis Running for Cover: The US, World Oil Markets and Iraq Last week's panic within the Clinton Administration over a potential winter spike in heating oil prices has greatly eased, as oil prices have begun to fall. The Democrats' political planners feared that Republican candidate George W. Bush and voters would blame Clinton and Vice President Al Gore for Chris Toensing • 4 min read
