The Palestinians won’t get a state this week. But they will prove – if they get enough votes in the General Assembly and if Mahmoud Abbas does not succumb to his characteristic grovelling in the face of US-Israeli power – that they are worthy of statehood. And they...
Middle East
History in the making – the Arab revolutions and the struggle for democracy | by League for the Fifth International
2011 will undoubtedly be remembered as the year of the Arab Revolution. We have seen an explosion of democratic aspiration and courageous struggle as revolutions spread in a few weeks from Tunisia and Egypt to Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, and Syria. Like all such movements,...
US-backed Egyptian junta massacres peaceful protesters | By Johannes Stern
On Sunday evening the Egyptian military launched a brutal attack on protesters in Cairo, killing at least 36 and injuring hundreds. The crackdown happened after a peaceful demonstration by 10,000 protesters headed from Shubra, a working class suburb of Cairo, to the...
Scorecard: Egypt’s army and the revolution | by Evan Hill
Five months after protests broke out, has the military met demands for political reform and social justice? When Egypt's youth-led "January 25th Revolution" forced long-serving President Hosni Mubarak to resign on February 11, Mubarak handed the reins of power to the...
Egypt’s sectarian playing field | by Asef Bayat
Many no doubt wondered what had happened to the celebrated revolution of civility, to the Tahrir of sacrifice and solidarity, as they watched the violent collisions between Christians and Muslims in Egypt over the past few weeks. Disturbing certainly, but they were...
Can the Islamists limit Egypt’s revolution? | by Phil Marfleet
The Islamist mass rally in Cairo on 29 July showed the deepening alliance between some Islamists and the ruling army council. But, argues Phil Marfleet, the Islamists are an unstable coalition whose ability to contain the revolution is far from established.The first...
The Top Ten Myths in the War Against Libya | by Maximilian C. Forte
Since Colonel Gaddafi has lost his military hold in the war against NATO and the insurgents/rebels/new regime, numerous talking heads have taken to celebrating this war as a “success”. They believe this is a “victory of the Libyan people” and that we should all be...
On the concatenation in the Arab World | by Perry Anderson
The Arab revolt of 2011 belongs to a rare class of historical events: a concatenation of political upheavals, one detonating the other, across an entire region of the world. There have been only three prior instances—the Hispanic American Wars of Liberation that began...
Mubarak Behind Bars | by Phyllis Bennis
The fact that the landmark trial of Hosni Mubarak is happening at all - in itself a remarkable feat - is glossed over by critics who are quick to point out the flaws in a trial that certainly would not meet Western expectations [EPA]The trial of ousted Egyptian...