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
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
