MER Article Editor's Picks (Fall 2001) Books Booth, Marilyn. May Her Likes Be Multiplied: Biography and Gender Politics in Egypt (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001). B’Tselem. Tacit Consent: Israeli Law Enforcement on Settlers in the Occupied Territories (Jerusalem, March 2001). Charrad, Mounira M. States and Women’s (Author not identified) • 1 min read
MER Article Iran and the Middle East The external relations of the Islamic Republic of Iran are, in large measure, dependent on politics within that country, and on the slow and often interrupted process of post-revolutionary change which Iran is undergoing two decades after the fall of the Shah. As has been widely reported over the past Fred Halliday • 16 min read
MER Article Syrian Regional Policy Under Bashar al-Asad Throughout the rule of Hafiz al-Asad (1970-2000), analysts widely agreed that Syria’s regional policies were mainly driven by a sometimes crude interest in national and regime security. Ideology, such as Asad’s famously stubborn rejection of “normal” relations with Israel, did not drive his regional and international foreign policies, Volker Perthes • 16 min read
MER Article The Iraqi Klondike Talk of a "new Middle East" was very much in vogue in the early 1990s. With a seeming Pax Americana reigning over the region after the Gulf war, and with Israel and its neighbors apparently nearing a comprehensive settlement, it looked as if economic interests, not political rivalries, (Author not identified) • 14 min read
MER Article Euro-Med Most Americans and many Arabs, Israelis, Turks and Europeans think of Uncle Sam as the superpower in the Middle East -- an avuncular hegemon, waging peace and war, picking favorites and ostracizing errants, disbursing guns here and butter there. Certainly, this image of a Goliath casting a shadow from the Sheila Carapico • 12 min read
MER Article The Decline (But Not Fall) of US Hegemony in the Middle East Americans who voted for “compassionate conservatism” in the November 2000 presidential election have been disappointed. George W. Bush has proven to be much more radical than his moderate campaign rhetoric implied. In the area of environmental policy, Bush’s moves to lift regulations on pollutants, promote the use of nuclear Fareed Mohamedi, Yahya Sadowski • 32 min read
MER Article Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, one of the most significant and articulate Palestinian-American intellectuals of his generation, died on May 23, 2001 at his home in Ramallah, Palestine, at the age of 72. A scholar, educator, activist and institution builder in both North America and the Middle East, Abu-Lughod Deborah J. Gerner • 3 min read
MER Article An Interview with Daho Djerbal From May to early July 2001, massive protests rocked the Berber areas (Upper and Lower Kabylia) of Algeria, spreading on several occasions to Algiers and other major cities. On June 14, perhaps a million Kabyles “marched for democracy” in the capital, sparking clashes with police and leading the gov Chris Toensing • 3 min read
MER Article Algerian Insurrection In the past ten years of political crisis, Algerians have been wary of public protest. Terrorized by relentless violence and impoverished by structural adjustment, they have repeatedly given the impression that what they want most is the chance to get on with their lives quietly. Despite the cancell Heba Saleh • 6 min read
MER Article Women and the Palestinian Left Palestinian women played a major role in the intifada of 1987-93, but have not, so far, in the current uprising. In January 2001, the Jerusalem-based magazine Between the Lines asked Eileen Kuttab, director of the Women’s Studies Institute at Birzeit University in the West Bank, to talk about the wi Chris Toensing • 3 min read
MER Article The Search for Good Governance in Palestine The second Palestinian intifada, a spontaneous expression of anger against the persistent Israeli occupation, has been sustained since last September through a complicated interplay of forces. The early Israeli deployment of sharpshooters quickly shut down large-scale popular protests. In their place, a type of guerrilla resistance, given staunch moral support Charmaine Seitz • 7 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Fall 2001) Upon its installment in the White House, the second Bush administration was universally expected to be the loyal handmaiden of Big Oil. The US oil and gas industry lavished $1,387,975 upon the hastily assembled committee which planned the inaugural festivities for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. BP- The Editors • 3 min read
