In The News

The Economist: Muslims in Egypt Are Trying to Preserve Its Jewish Heritage

September 17, 2017
Egypt’s Jewish community, about 80,000 before World War II, has been whittled down to 20 in recent years. The Economist describes an organization made up of Muslims and Jews, Drop of Milk, that is making a concerted effort to “preserve Egypt’s Jewish heritage.” The nation has a contentious past after four devastating wars with Israel, forced conversions and “Jews who worked alongside Egyptians...

The Economist: The Saudis May Be Stretching Out Hand of Peace to Old Foes

September 12, 2017
The protracted hostility between Saudi Arabia and Iran’s Arab allies may be cooling. The Economist observes that historically “the [Saudi] kingdom has been [on the] front of Sunni Islam’s anti-Shia dogma.” Following his ascension to the throne in 2015, “King Salman bin Abdelaziz and his young son and defence minister, Muhammad, set their sights on rolling back Iran’s influence from the region by...

Deutsche Welle: Trump Has Europe Concerned Over Iran Nuclear Deal

Kersten Knipp September 7, 2017
The US president is signaling an opinion that Iran is not complying with the nuclear deal in place since 2015. Without providing specifics, the US ambassador to the United Nations suggests that the United States has technical reasons for ending the agreement, though these would “contradict the information provided by the International Atomic Energy Agency,” reports Kersten Knipp for Deutsche...

Foreign Affairs: Is War in Gaza Unavoidable?

Ghaith al-Omari and Grant Rumley September 5, 2017
War in Gaza seemed possible this summer after Israel went along with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s request to cut electricity for 2 million Gazans living under Hamas rule. As Ghaith al-Omari and Grant Rumley observe in a recent article for Foreign Affairs: “Abbas hoped to pressure Hamas into relinquishing control over the strip, which was plunged into darkness as the cornered...

The Economist: Stumped for Words: Language Battle Hampers Algeria’s Development

August 28, 2017
The legacy of the French settler-colonial project continues to impact the politics of education in Algeria. “The republic’s official language is standard Arabic, but few children grow up speaking it, so they often feel lost on their first day of school. Berber, the tongue of perhaps a quarter of Algerians, was officially recognised last year – but no one can agree on which of its six dialects...

New Statesman: How the Saudis Make It Almost Impossible to Report on War in Yemen

Ahmed Baider and Lizzie Porter August 23, 2017
Saudi Arabia is intent on limiting media coverage of its role in the war on neighboring Yemen. Since 2015, the civil war in the poor country of 25 million, between Saudi-backed forces of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and Houthi rebels has left 10,000 dead, more than 530,000 suspected cases of cholera and millions starving, and “Yet the lack of press attention on Yemen’s conflict has led it to...

Spiegel Online: Libyan Camps for Refugees Are Not the Answer

Florian Gathmann, Walter Mayr, Veit Medick, Peter Müller and Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt August 18, 2017
Politicians in Europe seek to manage the flow of migrants from Africa and the Middle East. Proposals include funding camps in Libya, managed by EU or UN officials to prevent migrants from undertaking treacherous journeys across the Mediterranean, and “a network of safe places” to reduce human smuggling. Libya’s government and economy are unstable, and officials lack control over much of the...