Current Analysis Palestinian Uprising Cannot be Ended by Force Israel needs to halt its use of force that has claimed more than 60 Palestinian lives in the past few days. And unless an international investigation is launched into Israel’s brutal attacks on Palestinian demonstrators, more blood will be shed. So far, the United States has blocked U.N. Security C Ian Urbina • 2 min read
Current Analysis Heightened Israeli-Lebanese Tensions Over Jordan's Headwaters A new source of tension between Lebanon and Israel has brought to an abrupt end what had been a generally calm summer along the flashpoint border between the two countries. Lebanon is close to implementing a plan to pump water from the Wazzani springs, the principal source of water for Nicholas Blanford • 8 min read
Current Analysis Building a Wall, Sealing the Occupation Yet another siege of Yasser Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah abated on September 29, as the Palestinian leader again emerged with his previously sagging popularity bolstered by confinement at the hands of Israel. Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza broke Israeli-imposed curfews on September 28 to mark the Isabelle Humphries • 7 min read
Current Analysis Antinomies of the Saad Eddin Ibrahim Case In the latest twist in the bizarre saga of the Saad Eddin Ibrahim case, on July 29 an Egyptian state security court sentenced the American University in Cairo (AUC) sociology professor to seven years in prison, and possibly hard labor, for the second time. Ibrahim, a dual Egyptian-American citizen well-regarded Mona El-Ghobashy • 8 min read
Current Analysis Thirteen-Year Itch Politicians and the Lebanese media have adopted August 7, 2001 as the date on which the Lebanese government began to crack down on public freedoms. On that afternoon, a pro-opposition television station broadcast live footage of Lebanese army personnel raiding the offices of Christian political figures Tawfiq Hindi and Nadim Marlin Dick • 7 min read
Current Analysis The US and the Kurds of Iraq As the winds of war steadily gather strength in the West, the Iraqi Kurds walk a tightrope between US interests and Iraqi government threats. Recognizing that it has little control over US decision-making, the Kurdish leadership is struggling to strike a delicate balance between a US-led "regime cha Maggy Zanger • 6 min read
Current Analysis Washington Pushes Turkey Toward "The Red Line" Top Pentagon brass may have doubts about the feasibility of the circulating war plans for Iraq, but George W. Bush's envoys have convinced Turkish decision-makers that a US military operation to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime is inevitable. An official document recently leaked from Turkish Prime Minister Ertugrul Kurkcu • 6 min read
Current Analysis Universal Jurisdiction No sooner had the dust settled in Gaza following Israel's July 23 assassination of Hamas leader Salah Shehada—an operation that took the lives of 15 civilians, many of them children—than Palestinian officials began declaring this act the first war crime committed since the inauguration of the Laurie King-Irani • 7 min read
Current Analysis The UN Arab Human Development Report With great fanfare and evident satisfaction, the UN Development Program and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development in June released the "Arab Human Development Report 2002" (AHDR). The Report, authored by a team of Arab scholars and policymakers with an advisory committee of "well-known A Mark Levine • 8 min read
Current Analysis West Bank Curfews The Israeli F-16 strike early on July 23 that killed Hamas leader Salah Shehada and 15 Palestinian civilians in the crowded Gaza neighborhood of al-Daraj put the roiling Israeli-Palestinian conflict suddenly back in the Western headlines. It is possible, as some Western diplomats have stated to the press, that Israel Adam Hanieh • 7 min read
Current Analysis Peace in Sudan Doubtful With negotiations between the government of Sudan and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) about to break off as both parties consult with their leaderships, UN and US officials express unguarded optimism that a deal can be hammered out to end the longest-running and one of the Dan Connell • 8 min read
Current Analysis Don't Blink On June 26, Jordan's King Abdallah II issued a royal decree pardoning former parliamentarian Toujan Faisal, who had been sentenced on May 16 to 18 months in jail for "seditious libel" and "spreading information deemed harmful to the reputation of the state." Faisal's release "on humanitarian grounds Jillian Schwedler • 8 min read
