In-Depth Coverage

Original Commentaries

11/13/08: The View from Gaza —Taghreed El-Khodary, New York Times journalist in Gaza and Harvard University Nieman Fellow (2005-2006). Interviewed by Middle East Bulletin.
11/04/08: Getting on the Right Track —Dalia Rabin, chairperson, Rabin Center, and daughter of the late Yitzhak Rabin. Interview with Middle East Bulletin.
10/23/08: Bottom-Up Meets Top-Down for Progress —Robert Danin, Head of Mission, Office of Quartet Representative Tony Blair and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs. Interview with Middle East Bulletin.

Setting the Record Straight

U.S. Policy Strengthens Iran

"Simply put, without permanent bases in Iraq, a nuclear capable Islamic Republic cannot be contained."
—Michael Rubin, resident scholar, American Enterprise Institute, "Can a Nuclear Iran Be Contained or Deterred?" Middle Eastern Outlook, November 5, 2008

“[B]y attacking Iraq, we automatically made Iran a regional power. We took out their major adversary in Iraq, and we neutralized, if only temporarily, the Taliban, on the other side. And so now we see not only that they are regional powers, but clearly indications of aspirations to be perhaps a hegemon in the area, their role in Iraq, their role in Syria, in Lebanon as well. And I can tell you, and I think you’ve heard it already, that there is real fear among the GCC countries about where all of this is going. All of them have minorities, in one case it’s not a minority, it’s a majority of Shias, and as the Sheika correctly pointed out, they can’t exchange Iran for some place else.”
—General Joseph P. Hoar (USMC, Ret.), former commander of U.S. Central Command (1991-94), National Council On U.S.-Arab Relations, 17th Annual Arab-U.S. Policymakers Conference, October 30, 2008

Middle East Analysis

Iranian Strategy in Iraq: Politics and ‘Other Means’ —Joseph Felter, national security affairs fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University; former director, Combating Terrorism Center at West Point (CTC) & Brian Fishman, director of research, CTC
In Iraq’s Diyala Province, U.S. Forces Anticipate Exit —Scott Peterson (The Christian Science Monitor)
Oil for Soil: Toward a Grand Bargain on Iraq and the Kurds —International Crisis Group, Middle East Report N°80

Forty Years Later, Arab- and Jewish-Americans Agree on a Two-State Solution

June 8, 2007

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar Assad (AP)

40 years after the 1967 war, the nature of the battle has changed. Part of the conflict has shifted from the battlefields of the Middle East to the airwaves of international satellite television channels, to the Internet and to the halls of the U.S. Congress where Jewish-Americans and Arab-Americans have taken to broadcasting their side of the story and to lobbying senators and representatives on Capitol Hill. Not that the violence in the Levant has stopped; it’s just that the theaters of operation have shifted.

Cognizant that any lasting peace in the Middle East will only be achieved if Arabs and Jews work together, Zogby International in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now and the Arab American Institute has conducted two polls, one of Jewish-Americans and one of Arab-Americans. The results indicate that despite their political differences both sides share the same fears and same desires. Access the full article>>

Jewish-Americans remain divided over the president’s lack of involvement in the area; 40.7 percent believe Bush is leaning towards Israel, 34.1 percent feel the president is disengaged from the peace process. On the Arab-American side, 21 percent feel that Bush is not engaged. Access the full article>>