Who killed Rafik Hariri? Today Lebanon got one step closer to answering a question that has plagued this war-wracked nation ever since the 2005 Valentine’s Day truck bombing that killed the country’s prime minister in downtown Beirut. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the UN-backed body investigating the assassination, delivered …
Middle East
Facebook Revolution in Israel Takes the Form of Cottage Cheese
When Tahrir Square was going full steam, I spent an afternoon asking Israelis their thoughts on the matter in a sleek shopping mall in Ra’anana, north of Tel Aviv. The first question was whether, watching the events in Cairo, they felt inspired? I should have said “sympathetic,” because several people thought they were being asked if …
Turkey Inspires Islamists and Liberals, But in Very Different Ways
Everybody wants a piece of Turkey. On my sweep through Egypt and Tunisia, virtually everyone I met invoked the nation that bestrides the Bosphorus as one they’d like their own country to emulate. The Turks had just had a general election, and Arabs had watched it unfold on Al Jazeera and other TV channels. The vote was clean, mostly …
French Military Admits Supplying Arms and Ammo To Libyan Rebels
U.S. President Barack Obama soon won’t be alone in taking flack about the legality of certain moves he’s made on Libya. On Wednesday, French military officials confirmed press reports that France has dropped arms and ammunition to Libyan rebels in what will doubtless spark protests that such action violates limitations the United …
A Talking Cure for Syria’s Pain? A British MP and a U.S. Congressman Visit Assad
“Visits to Syria have become a vexed issue. Reacting to a visit to Syria by U.S. senators in December, a White House spokesman said that ‘you can take a tough line all you want but the Syrians have already won a PR victory’ simply because visits give ‘legitimacy to a government that undermines the cause of democracy in the …
Old Class Tensions Simmer in New, Post-Revolutionary Egypt
TIME’s Cairo correspondent Abigail Hauslohner continues her examination of aftermath of Egypt’s revolution. As Islamists and liberal factions begin to shape a new future for their country, one group is being left out of the political discussion: the working class. Wealthier, educated, urban citizens have seen much of their revolutionary …
Better Late Than Never, Israel Outlaws Business with Iran
A month after the U.S. State Department sanctioned an Israeli shipping company for doing business with Iran, the government of Israel approved a measure making the same thing illegal on its books, too.
Libya Clashes Escalate But a Diplomatic Compromise Looms
As NATO’s war in Libya entered its 100th day on Monday, an end to the conflict may be in sight — but not necessarily a decisive one. Military and diplomatic signs point increasingly towards some measure of compromise by both sides in shaping an outcome that neither the regime nor the rebels would have countenanced when their …
After Beheading, Indonesia Bars Maids from Work in Saudi Arabia
A woman, beheaded by the sword thousands of miles from home. This, at last, proved too much for Indonesia. For years, this Southeast Asian nation has been sending its citizens to work in Saudi Arabia and, for years, migrant workers there complained of poor working conditions, abuse and violence. But the surprise execution of Ruyati …
Man vs. Lion: A Macabre Fight-to-the-Death in Egypt
If Egyptian strongman Sayed el-Essawy gets his way, he may be dead by this Saturday. In supposed honor of the start of the uprising against the dicatorship of Hosni Mubarak (Jan. 25), el-Essawy intends to take on a 600-lb lion June 25 and beat it, perhaps to death, with his own hands. It’s a showdown he claims will promote tourism in …
What’s So Scary About the Muslim Brotherhood?
Essam Erian throws his hands up in mock surrender. “I cannot answer this question,” he says, smiling broadly. “This is a question for me to ask, for you to answer.”
The question: What does the Muslim Brotherhood have to do to stop being portrayed as the bogeyman? The Egyptian Islamist movement has been trying very hard to shake …
What Would Orwell Say: How War in Libya Makes Language Suffer
In the aftermath of World War II, George Orwell reflected on politics, power and language: “When the general atmosphere is bad,” he wrote, “language must suffer.” To wage war, to justify empire, the politicians of his time mashed words, turning English to euphemistic mush, he said. In turn, the “sheer cloudy vagueness” of political …
In Libya, the Clock Is Ticking Toward NATO Failure
Western leaders may insist that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is weakened, isolated, irrelevant, and about to bow out, but their words hide hide a growing anxiety in Western capitals about the implications of his tenacity. Three months and counting into a bombing campaign that has yet to force out the regime, there’s growing …