Credit: frontporchaustin.org In just the past ten days, irate Palestinian negotiators briefly suspended peace talks after an Israeli army raid in the Qalandiya refugee camp ended with the deaths of three Palestinians, the pro-peace organization Minds of Peace held a public summit between regular Israelis and Palestinians in the streets of Jerusalem and signed a […]
On July 3, 2013, in a move that shocked some members of the international community, the Egyptian military forcibly removed from power President Mohammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). With overwhelming support from Egyptians, the military deposed Morsi’s government, maintaining that they stepped in as a response to serious political and social unrest triggered […]
Nothing seems to be safe in Egypt these days. Political opponents of the military leadership are the chief targets for the attacks, attacks that include live fire from security forces. They are not alone: The seething rampages have spread to Christian churches, the media, foreigners, those held in custody, and even to the corpses waiting […]
Credit: Wikimedia Commons Ramy Peter and Yazan Amin,* both Egyptian, spent five weeks in America over the summer on a program called the Study of the U.S. Institute on Religious Pluralism and Democracy (based in Philadelphia), where they studied religious pluralism, democracy and dialogue. They have been back in Egypt since late July. Peter, 22, […]
After many years and a lot of prodding from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the Israelis and the Palestinians will be resuming peace talks. Both sides are moving forward reluctantly, and with little optimism toward a successful outcome. Abbas had initially demanded an official settlement freeze before coming to the table, something that Netanyahu […]
Source: Wikimedia Commons Ever since United States Secretary of State John Kerry revealed to international media on July 19 that he had reached an agreement between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government to resume direct negotiations, there has been a torrent of reactions and commentary on the issue. Some of this has focused on […]
Journalism has never been an easy job. The conditions get worse when a journalist is dealing with an authoritarian government such as the Islamic Republic of Iran. The 2013 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders ranks the Islamic Republic of Iran 174 amongst 179 countries for its respect for media freedom. The […]
Article VI of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s constitution “mandates popular elections for president and parliament.” Four years after the controversial presidential election that kept Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power, the Iranian people have elected a new leader. On June 13, Hassan Rouhani won more than 50 percent of 36.7 million votes cast and became Iran’s […]
Editor’s Note: The following is a contributing guest piece by Houchang Hassan-Yari. Dr. Hassan-Yari is Professor of international relations and strategic military studies at the Royal Military College of Canada. __________________________________________________________________ Even if the electoral vote of 50.7 percent by Hassan Rouhani is the lowest in comparison to that of his predecessors, it is mainly the context of […]
Egypt’s recent political shifts are likely to have mixed mixed implications for Iran. Egypt’s turmoil that was marked with the overthrow of President Mohammed Mursi on July 3, 2013 is unsettling for the volatile and war-weary and Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region. Iran’s rival, Saudi Arabia has been cheering for recent events in Cairo […]
Credit: The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs In the past couple of months, two interesting polls have been published on Israeli and Palestinian public opinion. The first (published in late May), which was commissioned by the Israel Peace Initiative and conducted by the Israeli company New Wave Research, found that 55 percent of Israelis […]
Jews have lived in the land of Israel for thousands of years. They faced several forced expulsions, the most recent lasting nearly 2,000 years. Even throughout that time, Jews lived in the Levant continuously, albeit in much reduced numbers. Two stories appeared this week in the press about archeological discoveries in Israel. In December 2012, […]
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