Iran and America

Israel and America

Editor's update

  • Hamas has released Paul Martin, a British journalist, accused of spying who has been held in Gaza for almost a month.

 

  • The Palestinian Authority says peace talks are off until Israel stops its plans to build more houses in east Jerusalem. Joe Biden says they must resume.

 

  • Sayed Tantawi, the Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar, Cairo's 1,000-year-old Islamic university and one of Sunni Islam's most important clerics, has died while visiting Saudi Arabia.

 

  • On a trip to Kabul, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accused America of playing a "double game" in Afghanistan.

What we're reading

  • An editorial in Ha'aretz argues that Benjamin Netanyahu is failing in his duties as Israel's prime minister.

 

  • Thousands of Iraqi refugees in Syria are forced to turn to the sex trade in order to survive.

 

  • Barbara Slavin thinks George Mitchell's trip could be a big test for Obama's Middle East policy.

 

  • Erik Tarloff bemoans the hostility and partisan nature of any debate about the Middle East.

Highlights
The Gulf

What's in a name?

Call it Persian—or else More»

A special report on the Arab world

Waking from its sleep

The Arab world has experienced two decades of political stagnation. But there is a fever under the surface More»

Art.view

An east-west confection

A sale in Dubai shows off the vision of Egyptian modernists More»

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