One year after protesters massed in Tahrir Square, tens of thousands mark their revolution’s anniversary
Islam
Dispatch from Hebron: At Holy Site, an Unholy Clash of Politics
Now that Palestine has been voted into UNESCO, the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, officials are preparing applications for the organization’s marquee designation: a World Heritage Site. …
Will Hizballah’s Support for Syria Lead To Its Downfall?
World leaders are often obliged to walk a thin line between national interest and the projection of a state’s moral values. The Arab Spring effectively put an end to the West’s balancing act as Europe and the U.S. were forced …
Israel on the Islamist Surge in Egypt: Told You So
The stunning showing by Salafist parties in the first round of Egypt’s parliamentary elections surprised Israeli officials as much as the rest of the world. The estimated 40 percent of the vote that went to the Muslim …
Dispatch from Tahrir: For Egypt’s Liberals, Election Is a Hard Vote to Swallow
It’s been a topsy-turvy few days for the Tahrir Square youths who brought down Egypt’s dictatorship at the height of the Arab Spring. Last week, they returned to the square to save the revolution from being hijacked by the …
Israel Frets as Cairo Smolders and the Sinai Goes Qaeda
Imagine the tribal areas of Pakistan wedged snug against, say, Belgium instead of against Afghanistan. Next imagine that Belgium, usually so good about these sorts of details, hadn’t bothered to erect a border fence to at least try to keep the jihadis in their own yard. This is approximately the situation Israel suddenly faces with …
Obama in Indonesia: Will the President Speak Out on Human Rights?
Obama loves Indonesia. He lived there as a boy and returned, last year, as president of the United States. In his homecoming speech at the University of Indonesia he reminisced about the Jakarta of his youth, conjuring scenes of rice paddies and kites drifting on the breeze. “Indonesia is a part of me,” he mused, lauding the young …
The Syria Game of Thrones: Turkey vs. Iran vs. the Saudis in Battle to Shape a Rebellion’s Outcome
The Arab League called Wednesday for “urgent measures” to protect Syrian civilians in the face of violent repression by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. But lest anyone take that as an echo of the call that legitimized the NATO-led military operation in Libya, the League’s statement also rejected “all foreign intervention” …
Behind Iran’s Nuclear Quest: An Ancient Civilization’s Pride and Insecurity
Every nation has its pride, but the feeling runs especially deep in Iran. There, the sense of nationhood extends back 2,500 years, to the time of Darius and Xerxes and other names that Americans might possibly have heard of somewhere — maybe in the action movie 300 — but which anchor modern Iranians to a stream of history that …
Firebombed French Paper Is No Free Speech Martyr
Okay, so can we finally stop with the idiotic, divisive, and destructive efforts by “majority sections” of Western nations to bait Muslim members with petulant, futile demonstrations that “they” aren’t going to tell “us” what can and can’t be done in free societies? Because not only are such Islamophobic antics futile …
Haunted by the Ghosts of Afghanistan, Libya Asks NATO to Stay On
The request by Libya’s Transitional National Council for NATO to continue its military mission in the country despite the overthrow and slaying of Col. Muammar Gaddafi is a reminder that Libya may have some things in common with Afghanistan circa January 2002. There, the Taliban had been routed and driven out of power by a …
Tunisian Elections: From Yesterday’s Most Wanted to Tomorrow’s Leaders
“No one will dare propose himself as a dictator. No one. The best institution we have now is the street,” says Mohamed Ali Harrath. The description could easily fit Libya, feverishly celebrating the death of Muammar Gaddafi, or Egypt, gearing up for parliamentary elections in November, the first since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster. But Harrath …
As Violence Roils Cairo’s Streets, What Does Egypt’s Junta Want?
The clashes that killed at least 24 Egyptians and wounded scores more on Sunday will have deepened suspicions over the intentions of the country’s military junta, which took power from President Hosni Mubarak last February and promised a transition to democracy. The violence came as a predominantly Christian crowd protesting against …