Pierre's Middle East Issues Blog

Anyone interested in following Middle East news and issues from original sources is in luck. The Mideast pulsates with English-language media, and the rest of the world is frequently obsessed ... Read More

She's a woman, she's Jewish, she's from Bahrain, a country sometimes too tiny for its daring, and this week, Huda Ezra Ebrahim Nonoo (or Nunu) became the Arab world's first ... Read More

(Photo by Simio Sapiens via his Flickr page). What I love about these three portraits, not only in their individual beauty and composition but as a set, is how they ... Read More

Presidential Cult: A billboard in Beirut thanking Michel Suleiman for being Lebanon's new president. The Lebanese may be celebrating too soon. (Photo by Liliane, independence05.com). They're jubilant over it. As ... Read More

The last time Israel and Syria talked peace, in 2000, Ehud Barak was the Israeli prime minister, Hafez el-Assad was the Syrian president, and Bill Clinton was the ... Read More

Passed on: Yasser Arafat's grave site in Ramallah, the West Bank. Like the PLO, Arafat appears to have passed into history quicker than he intended. (Photo by Mike & Christine ... Read More

Rain of fear: A Hezbollah billboard along a road in South Lebanon: "All our disasters caused by U.S.A." (Photo by Pierre Tristam © 2000). Let's not underestimate what happened last ... Read More

Ruins in His Wake: President Bush, in the Middle East this week for probably the last time in his presidency, is leaving behind a region in far worse shape than ... Read More

For Palestinians, Every Day is Al-Naqba--the Catastrophe: A Palestinian woman weeps over the rubble of her home in the Gaza Strip's Rafah Refugee Camp. The Israeli military demolished the home, ... Read More

Few documents in Middle Eastern history have had as consequential and controversial an influence as the Balfour Declaration of 1917. But who was it named for, and what was the ... Read More

Next week Israel turns 60. To Israelis, it's both a proud and anxious anniversary. The country is as rich, economically vibrant and strong as it's ever been. It's also in ... Read More

That's how it was in Lebanon back in 1974 and 1975, just before the outbreak of civil war: labor strikes turning violent, protesters blocking roads, setting tires on fire, clashing ... Read More

Aaron David Miller was an Arab-Israeli specialist at the State Department for almost a quarter century. He served six administrations along the way, Democratic and Republican, beginning with the Carter ... Read More

It isn't often that an Arab nation will hold an event where human rights hold center stage. Today and tomorrow, however, Bahrain is holding the first Human Rights International Film ... Read More

Restaurants, cinemas and theaters closed, flags were lowered to half staff, and at one point sirens blared across the country--not as warning of an attack, but as a signal to ... Read More