Summary
The tug of war between proponents of a civil, democratic, and secular state, on the one hand, and conservative forces, especially religious hardliners, on the other, has become the center of public debate in Jordan against a backdrop of incidents that have recently polarized the kingdom. Accusations that new school textbooks for elementary grade students have been altered where certain religious references, including Quranic verses, were removed have triggered public protests throughout the country.
Amb. Richard Murphy
Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Momani described the country’s September 20 parliamentary election as a source of “pride” and asserted that the country has now “inaugurated a new era.” While the parliamentary space for opposition voices slightly increased, Jordan’s 2016 elections largely preserved the country’s status quo and maintained the tribal-Palestinian divide.
The article was first published on NPR.
The last surviving leader of Israel’s founding generation, Shimon Peres was a three-time prime minister, the architect of the country’s secretive nuclear program and a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to make peace with the Palestinians.
Leila Sansour is an acclaimed filmmaker, best known for “Jeremy Hardy versus the Israeli Army.” She returned to her hometown Bethlehem to document the detrimental effect of the wall on the city and its people. She discusses her latest film, Open Bethlehem.
The following interview was edited for style and clarity.
MEI: Tell me about the genesis of this film and project, and your inspiration for it?
Any Middle East observer would find a question about the basic posture of Israel vs. ISIS a practical no brainer. Such an observer would confidently state that these two entities are staunch enemies, currently engaged in multiple types of warfare and destined to continue on that path. For Israel, according to this intuitive rational, ISIS is but another link in a long chain of terror entities sworn to its destruction, much like Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and many others. For ISIS, the narrative would continue to claim, Israel is a natural primary target.
In this issues of MEI’s weekly briefing, contributors Daniel Serwer, Randa Slim, Eran Etzion, and Alex Vatanka provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including discussions between the United States, Russia and Turkey on Syria policy at the G20 Summit, the Syrian opposition’s transition plans, Russian moves on Israel-Palestine, and Iran’s energy policy.
“[Food insecurity has] the potential to amplify destabilization, engender violence, and even accelerate state failure processes in an already geopolitically charged region”
– Andy Spiess in Food Security in the GCC Economies (2012)
I. Introduction
When “Islamic finance” is mentioned, ideas of the latest Gulf mega-projects spring to mind. However, for millions of Muslims throughout the Middle East, Islamic finance is analogous to a credit union in the United States. In places like Jordan and Turkey, the system is witnessing considerable growth, but for quite different reasons. While Jordanians look to Islamic finance as a route to development, the Turks use it to fight inflation.
Summary
Summary
Israeli-Russian relations have attracted unusual levels of interest in recent months, against the backdrop of Russia’s military intervention in Syria and the unprecedented creation of a ‘de-confliction’ mechanism between the I.D.F. and the Russian forces. As is so often the case in today’s hyper-connected media and political environment, this small nucleus of reality was blown out of proportion and portrayed as nothing short of a strategic love affair.
Much has been made, particularly by Israelis, of the expanding horizons for collaboration between the Jewish state and Arab Gulf states. Israeli ministers and business people lose no opportunity to tout Israel’s interest in expanding ties of all sorts in a region viewed as a valuable market for Israeli industry and an intelligence gold mine.
