From David Schenker
Egypt’s National Democratic Party (NDP) conference is fast approaching, but the meeting—which will formally set the stage for political succession—isn’t making headlines these days. On October 6, the Los Angeles Times reported on how the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is reacting to sales of an Artificial Virginity Hymen Kit; still other news outlets have [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in David Schenker, Hezbollah, Lebanon on May 27th, 2009 Comments Off
From David Schenker
On June 7, Lebanon goes to the polls to elect a new government. Just over a week out, the race is too close to call. The stakes couldn’t be higher. Either the pro-west March 14th coalition, in power since 2005, retains power; or the Iranian- and Syrian-backed March 8th coalition led by Hezbollah [...]
Read Full Post »
From David Schenker
Earlier this month, the Saban Center at Brookings published a monograph by Itamar Rabinovich titled Damascus, Jerusalem, and Washington: The Syrian-Israeli Relationship as a U.S. Policy Issue. Rabinovich, a distinguished Israeli academic and former diplomat, has been a longtime analyst of the Israeli-Syrian peace track. Based on the title, I had expected to [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Announcements, David Schenker on Feb 23rd, 2009 Comments Off
From David Schenker
As everyone who follows the Middle East knows, in recent years there’s been a veritable explosion of Arabic language news sources on the region. The proliferation of satellite news channels, blogs, and websites offers Middle Easterners and outside scholars a lot of choices.
Traditionally, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy has been focused [...]
Read Full Post »
From Mark N. Katz
With the fighting over in Gaza (at least for now), many see Hamas emerging as the victor in the same way that Hezbollah did in the war it fought with Israel in the summer of 2006. But did Hamas really win? Is it better off now than before the fighting began?
Just like [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in David Schenker, Qaeda, Syria on Oct 31st, 2008 Comments Off
From David Schenker
Earlier this week, U.S. helicopters killed a high-value Al Qaeda target in Syria. While the attack shocked some observers, the presence of Al Qaeda operatives on Syrian soil has surprised few. According to CENTCOM, since 2003 Syria has been the leading point of entry of insurgents—Al Qaeda and others—into Iraq. Damascus allowed these [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Adam Garfinkle, Announcements, Barry Rubin, Bruce Jentleson, David Schenker, J. Scott Carpenter, Jacqueline Newmyer, Michael Rubin, Robert Satloff, Stephen Peter Rosen, Tamara Cofman Wittes on Aug 3rd, 2008 25 Comments »
From Stephen Peter Rosen
Peter Rodman, a member of MESH, passed away on Saturday. I met Peter in 1980 in Santa Monica. I was very junior, he had already worked at the highest levels in government, and was just back from a long trip. But he immediately joined into a serious conversation and worked to [...]
Read Full Post »