United States Will Pay a Heavy Price for the Gaza Flotilla Incident
Asserting its need to be secure from future terrorism launched from Gaza, Israel used force last week to maintain a blockade that has been creating a humanitarian cataclysm for the people of Gaza. In the early days following the attack on the aid flotilla, the Israeli military interpretation of events dominated much of the popular media coverage in the United States. Gradually, though, attention shifted to the incident’s negative impact on Israel’s international standing and the security implications of continued international and regional uproar.
The Middle East Institute is proud to host Dr. Hanan Mikhail Ashrawi, Member of the PLO Executive Committee and the Palestinian Legislative Council, or a discussion about Palestinian-Israeli proximity talks and other issues related to the peace process and the situation in the West Bank and Gaza.
In Search of a Voice: Arab Soccer Players in the Israeli Media
Soccer is the most popular sport in Israel. As such, it is also a strategic research site in which to study Israeli society and its complex social and ethnic relations.
Walls and Goals: The Israeli-Palestinian Encounter in Football
Dedicated to the memory of Israel Tzvi Raab Z”L, a true lover of the game
The long, complex encounter between the Israeli and Palestinian people has been examined in many cinematic and literary creations. In this essay, I will explore several that use football as a lens to read opposing political agendas and as a means to resolve conflict.
A Step on the Path to Peace: How Basketball is Uniting Arab and Jewish Youth in Jerusalem
Basketball is a game where all five players need to share the ball. If it is played with great teamwork, the sum of the parts is greater than the individual. It’s a great forum for building trust. A lot of the game happens with things you can’t see. Communication and trust with teammates is the key. It seems to me that the same can be said of peacemaking.
–R.C. Buford, General Manager of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs[1]
The Israel-Palestine Conflict: Views of a Palestinian-Israeli member of the Israeli Knesset
Dr. Ahmad Tibi is a member of the Arab Movement for Change and was first elected to the Israeli Knesset in 1999. He currently serves as Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and head of the parliamentary committee of inquiry, which seeks to accommodate Palestinians through integration into jobs in the public sector. He has played a key role in the politics of the Palestinian-Israeli community, which constitutes approximately one fifth of Israel's population. He has also played a key role in relations between Palestinian-Israelis and Palestinians in the occupied territories and Dr.
The Kurds of Iran: A Look at their Past, Present and Future
The Middle East Institute is proud to host Carol Prunhuber, Sharif Behruz and Idris Ahmedi and for a lecture about the political, social and human rights status of Iran's Kurds, one of the country's largest ethnic groups. Iran's Kurdish population has long pushed for autonomy, and in 1979 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declared a "holy war" against the Kurds in Iran seeking self-rule. Since then the relationship between Iran's Kurds and the Islamic Republic has been characterized by frequent military crackdowns.
Introduction to The State of the Arts in the Middle East: Volume IV
Literature, visual art, and photography not only serve an aesthetic purpose, but often act as mediums through which their creators explore deeply personal experiences and their broader social implications. In this, the fourth volume of MEI’s “The State of the Arts in the Middle East,” Najat Rahman considers the works of the Palestinian artists Emily Jacir and Eman Haram, and W. Scott Chahanovich (with Pauline Pannier) discusses the memoirs of the Moroccan-born writer Abdellah Taïa.
The Khamenei-Ahmadinejad Regime and the Challenge of the Iranian Opposition
The Middle East Institute is proud to host Iranian scholars Ali Alfoneh and Alex Vatanka for a discussion about the ongoing unrest in Iran and the implications for the stability and future of the Islamic Republic. With the Green Movement having proved its staying power, some scholars and analysts are starting to predict the beginning of the end for the regime of Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, while others dismiss the idea as wishful thinking and argue that the Islamic Republic is here for the long-term.
Iranian Migrants in the Arab Countries of the Persian Gulf
This essay examines migration from the Iranian coastal region of the Persian Gulf to the nearby Arab countries. At the center of this research are questions of cross-border relationships, the construction of transnational spaces in border migration, and strategies for maintaining networks in both the home and host countries.
The Middle East Institute is proud to host Dr. Mark Katz, professor at George Mason University, for a discussion of current relations between Iran and Russia. The Obama Administration has attempted to improve US relations both with both countries. However, neither Tehran nor Moscow has responded favorably toward the new administration's initiatives. While Tehran and Moscow continue to distrust Washington, they also distrust each other.
Economic Peace in the West Bank and the Fayyad Plan: Are They Working?
There can be a democratic, de facto Palestinian state by 2011, according to Salam Fayyad, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA). The goal was outlined in an eloquent two-year plan entitled “Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State,”[1] published in August 2009, which called for the formation of the institutional foundations of statehood prior to, and independent of, an agreement with Israel.
