Current Analysis Under-the-Radar Palestinian Connections With intensity unknown since the second intifada [http://www.merip.org/mer/mer217] and at a daily cost of $12 million to the Hebron economy alone, Israel is cracking down on the West Bank in its search for three missing Israeli settler youth. The result is a growing Palestinian chorus: Stop Israeli- Raja Khalidi • 4 min read
Current Analysis Death and Taxes Last year 27 cents [http://static.natprior.org/images/charts/2015/taxes-desk.png] of every income tax dollar in the United States went to the military. Even so, that proportion has not generated enough revenue to pay for the military’s operations over the last 13 years, which, in a historic departur Amanda Ufheil-Somers • 2 min read
Current Analysis Syria's Drought and the Rise of a War Economy The grinding war in Syria brings new horrors with every passing week. The death toll and the number of displaced people continue to soar, as more areas of the country are reduced to rubble. This month, two additional issues with dire long-term consequences have been gaining attention: the possible d Omar S. Dahi • 2 min read
Current Analysis New Alliances and Schisms in Sudan The ten days of protests in Sudan beginning September 23, 2013 were the largest in the country since the installation of the military government of Omar al-Bashir in 1989. As Middle East Report editor Khalid Mustafa Medani explains in an interview with KPFA, unlike the youth-led protests of 2011 and Amanda Ufheil-Somers • 1 min read
MER Article Aspiration and Reality in Iraq's Post-Sanctions Economy From 1990 to 2003, Iraq languished under comprehensive UN sanctions that prohibited foreign trade. When sanctions were finally lifted, many economists and pundits, as well as Iraqis themselves, hoped for a rapidly expanding economy, brisk reconstruction and a return to prosperity. They have been sor Bassam Yousif • 11 min read
Current Analysis The Syrian Cataclysm For obvious reasons, coverage of the uprising and internal war in Syria has been dominated by the terrible human toll. An estimated 60,000 Syrians (or more) have been killed, with tens of thousands more scarred bodily and emotionally by the violence. As of the end of February, over 3 million Syrians Omar S. Dahi • 6 min read
Current Analysis Weighed Down In Egypt these days [http://www.merip.org/mer/latest], there seems to be a lot less of what Egyptians call “lightness of blood,” the easygoing bonhomie for which, in one of those stereotypes with a large grain of truth, the country is renowned. The quick-witted jocularity is diminished, the laughter Jessica Winegar • 4 min read
Current Analysis Syrian Kurds on the Verge of Crisis With the civil war in Syria past the point of no return, the country’s economy is undergoing unprecedented shrinkage. Inflation is running rampant. Purchasing power is plummeting as the value of the Syrian pound falls against the US dollar. Damascus and Aleppo, the main economic hubs, are badly aff Sirwan Kajjo • 2 min read
MER Article The Cost of Living Crisis in the West Bank In September 2012, declining living standards ignited a firestorm of street protests and strikes in the West Bank. The immediate spark was a sharp increase in fuel prices, alongside an increase in the value-added tax (VAT) rate. It seems that the protesters had a message for Palestinian Authority (P Numan Kanafani • 9 min read
MER Article Gulf Juggernaut Adam Hanieh, Capitalism and Class in the Gulf Arab States (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011). Karen Pfeifer • 6 min read
Current Analysis No Clean Break Renewed conflict along the border between Sudan and South Sudan follows a predictable pattern, says MERIP editorial committee member Khalid Medani in an interview with KPFA radio. Amanda Ufheil-Somers • 1 min read
Current Analysis As If There Is No Occupation For many months, the streets of downtown Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority (PA), have literally been heaps of earth. Workers have labored intensively to replace water and sewage pipes, repave roads, lay beautiful carved stones at roadsides and install thick chains along the edges of sidewa Numan Kanafani • 14 min read
