“All good things are four” – On the fourth Israeli legislative elections within two years
By Sandra Bandemer On March 23 2021, Israelis will again be heading to the polls – for the fourth time within two years. That Israel’s democracy finds itself in a severe political crisis seems to be beyond question. How long this crisis will persist is, however, rather uncertain. According to the Israeli Democracy Institute’s Continue Reading
Book Review of “Iran: A Modern History”
Abbas Amanat is an authority in the field of Iranian historiography. A Professor at Yale University, his published work is as extensive as his experience, having been the editor-in-chief of the Iranian Studies journal. Amanat’s latest book, “Iran: A Modern History”, will certainly contribute to cement his already outstanding reputation. The 900-page long book will Continue Reading
Brian Hook, the Iran Hawk in Chief
“Some changes are for good/ And this I know for sure”. At least, this is what Dionne Warwick used to sing back in the 1970s. We don’t know if Brian Hook thought the change was for good when in March 2018 US President Donald Trump decided to dismiss Rex Tillerson, who had been the US Continue Reading
Book Review of “Making the Arab World: Nasser, Qutb, and the Clash that Shaped the Middle East”
“Making the Arab World” is a superb dual biography of two of the key figures of twentieth-century Egyptian history, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Sayyid Qutb. At the same time, however, the book written by Fawaz A. Gerges is much more than this. In his work, the Lebanese-American scholar recounts the evolution of Egypt before Nasser Continue Reading
Dissecting the 2019 Israeli elections
After the publication of the final results of the Israeli parliamentary elections, Benjamin Netanyahu, the incumbent, emerges as the winner of the April 9 polls. The Prime Minister, who is going to be indicted for different corruption charges by the Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit, put himself at the center of the electoral campaign. The Continue Reading
Three Key Aspects of the Turkish local elections
On March 31 local elections were celebrated in Turkey. We try to analyse the results of the elections by looking at three key aspects that marked the electoral contest. The discrepancy between overall vote and the results in Turkey’s largest cities It is impossible to find a single indicator for a comprehensive assessment of the Continue Reading
Book Review of “Iran Rising: The Survival and Future of the Islamic Republic”
Feb. 1, 2019, marked the 40th anniversary of the return of Ayatollah Khomeini to Iran after 15 years of exile. During the four decades that have passed since Khomeini’s comeback, numerous have been the analysts and political leaders that have forecasted the imminent doom of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In his latest book, “Iran Rising: Continue Reading
Book Review of “Whisper Tapes: Kate Millett in Iran”
Exactly forty years ago, on March 14, 1979, the American feminist Kate Millet and her partner, the Canadian journalist Sophie Keir, did not know yet that they were about to be deported from Iran. They would be aware of this the following day, when the deputy prime minister of the Iranian interim government, Abbas Amir-Entezam, Continue Reading
The anti-Iranian Warsaw Summit may have been a failure… but not for everyone
A failure… There is a certain consensus that the international summit organized in Warsaw by the United States last week, on February 13-14, was a failure. The pompous name given to the meeting (Ministerial to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East) could not hide the main motivation behind the organization of the Continue Reading