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 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 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 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
Current Analysis Israel's Palestinians and the Politics of Law and Order Last week, a shocking case of Israeli police brutality in the occupied West Bank was reported in the Washington Post. Officers accosted three young Palestinians out delivering groceries, beat them and took photographs of themselves holding up the Palestinians' bloodied heads "like hunting trophies" Graham Usher • 5 min read
Current Analysis Iran's Reform Dilemma Saturday's summons of the Ayatollah Ali Khameneii's brother Hadi Khameneii to the Special Court for the Clergy punctuated Iran's tumultuous summer in dramatic fashion. The younger Khameneii, publisher of the moderate daily Hayat-e No, appeared before the tribunal September 11 to face vague Ali Mudara • 6 min read
Current Analysis Politics, Not Policy In a public break with the US, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook today submitted a draft parliamentary bill supporting the rapid establishment of an International Criminal Court (ICC) in which to try major war criminals and violators of human rights. The British move to secure the ICC's ratificat Sarah J Graham-Brown • 5 min read
Current Analysis Egypt Harasses Human Rights Activists Family and friends of Saad Eddin Ibrahim, chair of Egypt's Ibn Khaldoun Center for Developmental Studies, breathed a huge sigh of relief on August 10, when Ibrahim was finally released on bail by prosecution authorities. The arrest at gunpoint of this internationally renowned pro-democracy activist Nicola Pratt • 5 min read
