The ballot blues
There is a consensus that the outcome of Lebanon’s parliamentary elections next year will be greatly affected by the situation in Syria. That’s a sensible conclusion to draw, but it should not detract...
View ArticleJudicial rule in Egypt?
In case after case in recent months, Egyptian courts have either made or attempted to make the most crucial decisions regarding the country's future. Two upcoming major rulings later this week will...
View ArticleKilling time
If it took the United States a surge in troops, immense resources and winning over the local population to turn the tide against a raging insurgency in Iraq, what makes Bashar al-Assad – with his...
View ArticleSilence religious figures
Maybe it is time for men of religion to step aside. It is time for all of them, without exception, in Lebanon and the region, to shut up, at least until we build our immunity against sectarianism....
View ArticleCamp life, part 2
In the second of a two-part series on the life of Syrian refugees in the Turkish camp of Boynuyogun, Michael Weiss talks to army defectors and civilians about what they think should be done to end the...
View ArticleMessages in a battle
The latest leaked emails from Syrian elites show members of a ruling class profoundly out of touch with their own people. It goes beyond Asma al-Assad’s passion for Christian Louboutin shoes or...
View ArticleMideast analysts, mea culpa time
A year and a half into the emergence of a new Middle East in the context of the Arab uprisings, it behooves commentators who have been tracking these events to step back and assess our own evaluations....
View ArticleCamp life
In the first of a two-part series on life for Syrian refugees in the Boynuyogun camp in Turkey, Michael Weiss paints a picture of the conditions those who fled the Assad regime in Syria face, as well...
View ArticleAbu Shahm’s victory
In the first of a two-part series from Antakya, Michael Weiss talks to Abu Shahm, a former mining magnate from a very wealthy family in Syria, who explains how he and his son got involved in the armed...
View ArticleAbu Shahm’s victory, Part 2
In the second of a two-part series from Antakya, Michael Weiss talks to Abu Shahm, a wealthy Syrian who joined the resistance. Abu Shahm, who spends his time between Turkey and Syria, and his son have...
View ArticleEgypt’s choice: The lesser of two evils
Typically in elections, most ballots are cast more against a given party or candidate than for one. But the coming Egyptian second round election will be almost entirely a question of which of these...
View ArticleWhat does Nasrallah really mean?
It is amusing to watch the leader of Hezbollah threaten the kidnappers of the 11 Lebanese Shia pilgrims from behind a giant screen. He gave the kidnappers the option of launching a war in Lebanon if...
View ArticleAssad’s sectarian strategy
While the massacre of women and children in Houla last month has been rightly denounced by outsiders as a horrific act of brutality, few fully appreciate the cold-blooded calculus of Syrian dictator...
View ArticleNo escape from Taif
We shouldn’t expect breakthroughs when it comes to Hezbollah’s arms in the national dialogue sessions. But March 14 must reaffirm the importance of the Taif Accord as the framework for any future...
View ArticleStaying on the sidelines in Syria
While the door-to-door massacre of women and children by pro-government militiamen in Houla last week has sparked international outrage and talk of a “tipping point” in Syria, the Obama administration...
View ArticleDefensive propaganda
Of all the uprisings of the “Arab Spring,” the Syrian revolt has been the one arena where pro-regime information warfare has been a central element in the ongoing conflict. Assad’s information...
View ArticleA culture of blame
The physical assault on Al-Jadeed reporter Ghadi Francis last week has largely gone unnoticed in the Lebanese media, which instead opted to focus on the sexual attributes of singer Myriam Klink. The...
View ArticleScared by the tribunal, who me?
Remember when the Special Tribunal for Lebanon was the nuclear bomb in Lebanese politics? Now the tribunal provokes hardly a yawn. Why does Hezbollah now seem so sanguine about the tribunal? Could it...
View ArticleListen to the besieged Syrians
While we are occupied with the UN observers’ mission to Syria, the Syrians have something else to deal with: How to topple the regime and how to stay alive. They know by now that diplomacy has failed...
View ArticleA patronizing narrative pigeonholes Arabs
The prevailing view remains that Islamists have nearly unassailable appeal at the present moment in Arab elections, and that the Libyan election result is merely an exception. Contrary to facts on the...
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