MidEast Brief

The colonies grow. The planners plot. The evictions continue. The politicians argue, scheme and prevaricate. The Gazans serve their interminable prison sentence. Is it not time for the US, Europe, the Arab League and other concerned parties to rescue Israel and Palestine from a drift to further disaster. We should try to end the fragmentation of Palestine and promote a reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. We should also set out in a Security Council resolution what we think an agreement in Palestine and Israel should comprise, and then work to achieve it.

The End of (Military) History? The United States, Israel, and the Failure of the Western Way of War

Andrew Bacevitch

Tom Dispatch - July, 2010

For both Israel and the United States, however, appearances proved deceptive. Apart from fostering grand illusions, the splendid wars of 1967 and 1991 decided little. In both cases, victory turned out to be more apparent than real. Worse, triumphalism fostered massive future miscalculation.

The Slow Death of Palestinian Democracy

Mustafa Barghouthi

The Middle East Channel - July, 2010

The cancellation of this election was an unjustified, unlawful, and unacceptable act. It damages democratic rights and makes a mockery of the interests of the Palestinian people.

Ten Years after Camp David, Israel Has Made Peace even Harder

Ben White

Christian Science Monitor - July, 2010

In the more than 40 years that Israel has militarily occupied the West Bank, the Green Line - Israel's pre-1967 borders - has been erased by the likes of illegal settlements, and road networks. Nowhere is this absorption of the Occupied Territories more apparent than in East Jerusalem, where close to 200,000 Israelis live in illegal settlements built in municipal boundaries that were expanded by Israel to include West Bank land.

Building Cooperation in the Eastern Middle East

Paul Salem

Carnegie Endowment - July, 2010

As the United States withdraws its forces from Iraq, there will be competition for regional influence by states in the eastern Middle East, including Turkey, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the rest of the Gulf countries. A formal framework for communication and cooperation--similar to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe--could reduce the risks of conflict and encourage stability and economic development in this tense but critical location.

Can Egypt Change? Prospects for Economic Reform

Lisa Anderson

The Middle East Channel - July, 2010

In fact, there has already been quite a bit of change in Egypt in the last decade, and most Egyptians are simultaneously pleased, eager for more, and uneasy about it. The question is not whether to change but how fast and how well change can be managed.

Ahmadinejad the Weak

Arang Keshavarzian

The Middle East Channel - Foreign Policy - July, 2010

The bazaar protests had little to do with the nuclear impasse or the Green Movement, but they are a sign of popular economic discontent and a likely harbinger of further turmoil to come.

A Wasted Decade: Human Rights in Syria during Bashar al-Asad's First Ten Years in Power

Human Rights Watch - July, 2010

This 35-page report reviews al-Asad's human rights record in five key areas: repression of political and human rights activism; restrictions on freedom of expression; torture; treatment of the Kurds; and Syria's legacy of enforced disappearances. The verdict is bleak.

Special Report on Egypt: A Slow Learning Curve

The Economist - July, 2010

A government survey this year found that, apart from school textbooks, 88% of Egyptian households read no books, and three-quarters of families do not read any newspapers or magazines either. Of those who do read, 79% concentrate on religious subjects. Perhaps more encouragingly, the study found that nearly three-quarters of youths aged 15-29 have used the internet, and almost half of them have read books on the web.

No Paradise: Most Egyptians Put up with a Lot

The Economist - July, 2010

Endgame

Noam Sheizaf

Haaretz - July, 2010

The Olive Branch in the West Bank

Hugh Gusterson

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists - July, 2010

From Srebrenica to Johannesburg to Jerusalem

Amjad Atallah

The Middle East Channel - July, 2010

Lessons We Should Have Learned from the Iraq Sanctions