Middle East
Middle East
Fair Observer provides inclusive, insightful and contextual analysis of the Middle East with its manifold cultures and civilizations.
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By Yaakov KatzWith the start of the summer, a possible Israeli military strike against Iran is a real possibility. Some Israelis think that a credible military threat posed to the Iranians could succeed in halting Tehran's nuclear program without the need for even a single airstrike. In 2003, as the United States was building up its military presence in the Persian Gulf ahead of the Iraq invasion, something interesting happened in another country – Iran. Fearing that they were next in line after the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, the Ayatollahs in Tehran decided to completely suspend all nuclear activity – the enrichment of uranium – at the Natanz underground facility, and the covert...
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United States / Europe / 360° Context / BRIC / Middle East / Americas / Africa / Global Security / AsiaBy Ari KatzTerrorism remains a threat to safety and security of people around the world, from the Americas to China, Eurasia to Southeast Asia, and many countries in between. Governments must work hard to ensure their citizens are not harmed. Background In 2011, 10,000 terrorist attacks killed over 12,500 persons across the globe. Over a decade since the attacks of 9/11, terrorism remains a salient global threat. Although the definition lacks consensus, terrorism is generally characterized as the utilization of violence to coercively achieve an ideologically, politically, or religiously motivated end that is broader than the immediate effects of the means themselves. In short,...
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Harvard Scholar Sean Lynn-Jones takes an evidence based approach to arguing for the effectiveness of decapitation strikes against terrorist and insurgent groups. On June 4, a missile fired from a pilotless US drone reportedly killed Abu Yahya al-Libi, said to be al-Qaida’s second-in-command, in a remote region of Pakistan. Just over a year earlier, US special forces stormed Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbotabad, Pakistan, and shot him dead. In September 2011, a US drone attack in Yemen killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American radical Islamic cleric who had become an al-Qaida regional commander. Numerous other al-Qaida leaders have been killed in US attacks in recent years. The...
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360° Analysis / United States / Europe / Middle East / Africa / Global Security / AsiaBy Mark N. KatzIndividually resolving many salient regional conflicts will eliminate grievances, stem the flow of new terrorists, and thus facilitate the winding down of the War on Terror, argues Mark N. Katz. The Obama Administration has placed increased emphasis on killing terrorists via unmanned drone attacks concurrent with Commando Raids. But such kinetic actions alone will not end the War on Terror. Terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda and its many affiliates seem to have no trouble finding new recruits to take the place of those the US kills. Reducing, if not ending, the flow of new terrorist recruits, though, could occur through resolving the various local and regional conflicts that are...
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By Ari BasenGrassroots movements are essential if the spread of Jihadi ideology is to be curbed. On May 1st, 2011, President Barack Obama announced to the world the successful execution of Operation Neptune Spear and the death of the world’s most wanted terrorist: Osama bin Laden. The raid by SEAL Team 6 in Abbottabad represented the culmination of a decade long Herculean effort by the US military and Intelligence Community to “bring justice to our enemies.” While the face of al Qaeda, the head of the snake, the man responsible for the tragedy of 9/11 was dead, al Qaeda and its violent ideology lives on. A year after the death of Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda “core” in the...
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Analysis on social responses to competitive extremism. The year 2011 contained key events in the containment of “new terrorism” and the emergence of “newer terrorism”. On May 2, 2011, Osama bin Laden was killed after a satisfyingly professional application of United States intelligence and special operations assets, prompting optimistic forecasts of a weakened Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda more than any other organization epitomized the “new” or religious terrorism that had surged for over two decades. But on July 21, 2011, in Oslo, Norway, Anders Behring Breivik showed us the “newer terrorism”. In a more insidious threat to democracies, today’s...
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In this exclusive interview, startup expert Yaniv Feldman tells Fair Observer about the trends in the country with more startups and venture funding per capita than any other. Interview conducted by Andrew Pollen. FO: How does someone become an entrepreneur? YF: It starts with an early love for technology. In my case, I started working on PCs at the age of three. I was a computer technician and writing newspaper articles already at 13. Then in the Israeli Army, I trained network administrators and systems engineers in the computers unit. FO: And now you divide your time between Newsgeek, Venturegeeks and The Startup Digest. YF: Yes. I started Newsgeek as a side venture. Initially it...
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The Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi has been unveiled as Egypt's first democratically elected president, amidst the dissolution of an Islamist dominated parliament and the controversial constitutional amendments enacted by the SCAF. Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate, has been declared as Egypt's new president amid political uncertainty which continues to surround the country. Despite holding free and fair parliamentary elections at the end of 2011, which saw the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) win over 47% of seats, a recent high court ruling has dissolved parliament. Moreover, generals from the ruling Supreme...
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This article reflects Nicholas A. Heras' research on the Iraqi refugee population in the Middle East. It is the product of research and interviews he conducted with Iraqi refugees, Lebanese, local and international NGO workers, and international organizations. The article's emphasis on Lebanon is a result of his fieldwork with Iraqi refugees in and around Beirut from 2009 to 2011. This is the final part. Lebanon's Iraqi refugee population is smaller than Syria's and Jordan's, with approximately 40,000 Iraqis living in Lebanon as estimated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and local humanitarian organizations. Iraqis in Lebanon are concentrated...