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Hamas's Shifting Political Calculations
  • Video
  • Hamas's Shifting Political Calculations

    Panelists will examine how the reverberations from last year's Arab Awakening, including the resulting unrest in Syria and the rise to power in Egypt of the Muslim Brotherhood, are re-shaping Hamas' relations with its patrons Iran and Syria, its rival, Fatah, and even the dynamics inside the organization itself.

    May 4, 2012

    Introduction to The Environment and the Middle East: New Approaches and New Actors , Volume II
  • Analysis
  • Introduction to The Environment and the Middle East: New Approaches and New Actors , Volume II

    The tumultuous political changes taking place across the region dominate the news — deservedly so. Yet, there are other changes taking place throughout the Middle East which, though less prominent, also merit attention. Indeed, the region has no shortage of creative and committed “change agents” who in ways great and small have taken meaningful steps to address the myriad challenges to the sustainability of the region’s physical environment. Volume II in this series offers snapshots of a small selection of the many efforts aimed at cultivating responsible environmental stewardship.

    April 26, 2012

    Israeli-Palestinian Peace: A Special Regime Option for the Old City of Jerusalem
    Middle East Institute
  • Analysis
  • Israeli-Palestinian Peace: A Special Regime Option for the Old City of Jerusalem

    Jerusalem will probably be the toughest issue in any future Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. The other three core issues – borders/settlements, security, and Palestinian refugees – will also be very difficult, but Jerusalem is at a different level. Jews, Muslims, and Christians worldwide have strong attachment to the city and its many holy sites. For Israelis and Palestinians, Jerusalem is the focal point of national, cultural, and religious identities and aspirations. Their conflicting claims are based on long history and narratives that do not accommodate the other.

    April 2, 2012

    Introduction to Public Health in the Middle East: Building a Healthy Future
  • Analysis
  • Introduction to Public Health in the Middle East: Building a Healthy Future

    Originally posted September, 2011

    The flow of ideas, people, and commerce across national boundaries has been occurring with breathtaking rapidity in the broader Middle East, as elsewhere. These increasingly dense exchanges have generated new threats and vulnerabilities that have tended to impact women, children, and the poorest members of society disproportionately. They also have given people more resources and opportunities with which to shape their lives and their futures.

    March 22, 2012

    Peace-Building through Health in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Six-Year Experience of Healing Across the Divides
    Middle East Institute
  • Analysis
  • Peace-Building through Health in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Six-Year Experience of Healing Across the Divides

    Originally posted September 2011

    Approximately six months ago, I asked an astute long-time American observer of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict whether we had come to the end of the road for a two-state solution. He replied that we had come to the end of that road in 1967. Putting it differently, Zhou Enlai, the premier of the People’s Republic of China under Mao Zedong, when asked what he thought of the French Revolution, reportedly replied that it was too early to tell.

    March 22, 2012

    Israel's Gift to Iran
    Middle East Institute
  • Analysis
  • Israel's Gift to Iran

    Are Iran’s leaders rational actors? This question matters when justifying any decision by Israel to preempt Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons. An Iranian regime seen as driven to destroy the Jewish state has to be dealt with differently than one whose objectives are mediated by calculations of costs and benefits. Deterrents that would be normally expected to restrain a state would not work with an irrational Iran.

    Reflections on Palestinian Unity, the Statehood Bid, and Prospects for Peace
  • Video
  • Reflections on Palestinian Unity, the Statehood Bid, and Prospects for Peace

    In the wake of the February 6 announcement that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will head an interim unity government there is renewed hope for political cooperation between rival parties Fatah and Hamas. The formation of the unity government however threatens U.S. aid to Palestine, as the United States has said that it refuses to send money to Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organization. The PLO's continued pursuit of statehood recognition in the UN Security Council has also isolated it from the United States even as it earned popular and international support.

    March 5, 2012