MER Article The Long Shadow of the CIA at Guantanamo ‘Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a designated “high-value detainee” in US government parlance, is on trial in the Guantánamo Bay military commissions. The 49-year old Saudi Arabian is accused of directing the October 2000 al-Qaeda suicide boat bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Aden, Yemen, which killed 17 sailors Lisa Hajjar • 18 min read
Current Analysis Ferguson to Palestine The world’s attention again shines on Ferguson, MO, where Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American 18-year old was shot by white police officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014. This time, the occasion is the grand jury’s failure to indict the officer. There will be no trial. There will be no oppor Stephen Tamari • 5 min read
Current Analysis Title VI and Middle East Studies In the past few years, pro-Israel groups have mounted an escalating and concerted effort to set the contours of scholarly debate about Israel on American campuses. This fall, two such organizations, the AMCHA Initiative and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, are lobbying Congre Bekah Wolf • 9 min read
Current Analysis Palestine, Adrift at the Met Opera is dying in New York. Or at least it was until last month. Bayann Hamid • 7 min read
Current Analysis The Cold Realities of US Policy in Israel-Palestine During the summertime war in Gaza, the two most progressive members of the US Senate stirred up controversy among their backers with expressions of uncritical support for Israel. At a town hall meeting, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the lone Senate independent, responded to a questioner that Israel had Mitchell Plitnick • 15 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Fall 2014) In the last week of August, after several false starts, a ceasefire finally halted the summertime slaughter in Gaza. Israel’s bombs stopped falling, Palestinians stopped dying and the world media stopped its round-the-clock coverage. And, just like that, Gaza was again yesterday’s news. The Editors • 4 min read
Current Analysis The Arab Bank and Washington’s Protectorate in the Levant One stated justification for US strikes in Syria and Iraq is to protect the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Pete Moore • 2 min read
Current Analysis State Department Taking Passports Away from Yemeni-Americans Over the past year, dozens of Yemeni-Americans visiting their ancestral homeland have had their US passports summarily revoked or confiscated by the embassy in Sanaa without any clear legal basis, effectively stranding them outside the United States. Last month, a coalition of US civil rights groups The Editors • 6 min read
Current Analysis Another Benghazi “We didn’t want another Benghazi.” Oh no, is that really why the Obama administration decided to bomb Iraq [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/world/middleeast/fear-of-another-benghazi-drove-white-house-to-airstrikes-in-iraq.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LedeSum&module=a-lede-package-r Chris Toensing • 5 min read
Current Analysis Beneath the Gray Lady’s Flak Jacket The New York Times is the most prestigious of the prestige press in the United States. The famed “gray lady” is the newspaper of record, a citadel of objectivity, it is said, where the first draft of history is crafted. It sets the agenda for other newspapers, for the broadcast news programs and eve William Lafi Youmans • 7 min read
MER Article Matthew Huber, Lifeblood Matthew Huber, Lifeblood: Oil, Freedom and the Forces of Capital (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013). “The American way of life” -- is there another phrase that sounds so innocuous yet is so fraught? To most Americans, and admirers of the United States abroad, the four words evoke na Chris Toensing • 4 min read
Current Analysis What About 'Abd al-Rahman al-Awlaqi? The US government wanted to kill Anwar al-Awlaqi long before [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/world/middleeast/anwar-al-awlaki-a-us-citizen-in-americas-cross-hairs.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0] a CIA-JSOC drone strike actually succeeded in doing so on September 30, 2011. Before and after that deadly s Lisa Hajjar • 3 min read
