Jordan's Election

The pundits got it wrong. They had predicted that the Jordanian general election of November 8 would result in the overwhelming return of traditional candidates with only a smattering of opposition deputies, enough to provide a vigorous, vocal check on government, but marginal in terms of setting a

Philip Robins • 7 min read

MER Article

"Transfer" and the Discourse of Racism

Saturday night I decided to go to a campaign meeting of the Moledet Party in Kfar Shalem, a rough neighborhood in the south of Tel Aviv. In the past, houses there were periodically served with demolition orders by the Tel Aviv municipality; in 1982 one inhabitant pulled a gun on demolition crews who

Ken Brown • 6 min read

MER Article

The Elections, the Peace Camp and the Left

The November 1988 Israeli election confirmed a pattern set in 1981 and 1984: the vote was nearly equal between the two large bourgeois parties, the Likud and the Alignment (Labor), and both these parties lost strength to their left and right.

Asher Davidi • 4 min read

MER Article

Jesse and the Jews

Throughout the first half of 1988, at every level of the political process in the United States, the longstanding consensus governing policy towards Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab-Israeli conflict was in flux. The explosion of Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation and Israeli repression generated sharp questions about American and

Micah Sifry • 23 min read

MER Article

Interview with Mohamed Sid-Ahmed

Mohamed Sid-Ahmed is a Contributing Editor of this magazine and Managing Editor of Al-Ahali, the weekly of Egypt’s left opposition party, Tagammu‘. Joe Stork spoke with him in Washington in early May.   You recently attended the Palestine National Council meeting in Algiers. What were your impress

Joe Stork • 6 min read

MER Article

Egypt's New Political Map

Compared with 1984, the atmosphere of the 1987 Egyptian elections was decidedly less free. The outcry of the opposition in 1984 primarily concerned the forged results on election day itself. [1] In 1987, the pressure on the opposition during the campaign was much stronger. The Emergency Law, extende

Bertus Hendriks • 22 min read

MER Article

Egypt's Elections

If the riots of February 1986 ushered in a year of doubt about the future of Husni Mubarak’s regime, the events of early 1987 appear to indicate that he has consolidated his position both domestically and internationally. [1] Mubarak upstaged the opposition and enhanced his legitimacy by calling new

Erika Post • 16 min read

MER Article

Israel's Political Formations

Alignment: The dominant party in the Labor Zionist movement was the right social-democratic Mapai. In 1965, a group loyal to Mapai’s historic leader, David Ben-Gurion, split and formed Rafi -- a formation characterized by an “activist” military policy and a technocratic/statist outlook. This group i

Joel Beinin • 2 min read

MER Article

Israel's "National Unity"

Israel’s latest elections, for the eleventh Knesset, have certified the state of paralysis and polarization that has gripped the country since the Lebanon invasion of 1982. The results of the election, and the failure of the Likud bloc to maintain a decisive plurality, certainly represent one conseq

Zvi Schuldiner • 20 min read

MER Article

Egypt's Elections, Mubarak's Bind

In the May 1984 general elections in Egypt, the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) won almost 73 percent of the vote. The new Wafd got just above 15 percent. The other three contenders failed to get the eight percent minimum needed for a seat: the Socialist Labor Party (‘Amal) got just over seve

Bertus Hendriks • 24 min read

MER Article

Local Elections Set Turkey's Political Configuration

The local elections held last March 25 decided the political future of Turkey -- barring any further military intervention -- until 1988, when the next general election is scheduled. This is why these elections were more important than the general election of November 6, 1983. This time all the poli

Feroz Ahmad • 3 min read

MER Article

The Turkish Elections of 1983

The elections of November 1983 are unique in the history of modern Turkey. They took place after three years of military rule, during which the entire political structure was completely altered. The alleged aim of this restructuring was to prevent a return to the situation which prevailed before Sep

Feroz Ahmad • 27 min read