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Every story from Middle East Window, newest first: the economy, markets, energy and politics of the Arab world.
Sunday, 27 September 2026
- ExplainerChristianity in the Gulf
Millions of Christians live and worship in the Gulf states, most of them migrant workers. Their churches sit on top of a far older Christian history in eastern Arabia.
- AnalysisA Just Israeli-Palestinian Peace: Jeff Halper's Integrated Strategy
The founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions argued that occupation is a system, and that only a strategy aimed at the whole system could end it. His thinking has travelled a long way since.
- ExplainerThe One-State Solution: A Democratic State in Israel and Palestine?
Once a fringe idea, the call for a single democratic state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean now features in mainstream debate. Where did it come from, and what are its critics' objections?
- AnalysisAlhurra and the Limits of America's Arabic-Language Broadcasting
Washington spent two decades and hundreds of millions of dollars trying to win Arab audiences with a satellite channel. The story of Alhurra says a lot about how public diplomacy works, and how it doesn't.
- AnalysisMarch 14: How Lebanon's Cedar Revolution Ended Syria's Occupation
A month after Rafik Hariri's assassination, perhaps a million Lebanese filled central Beirut. It was the largest demonstration in the country's history, and within weeks Syrian troops were gone.
- AnalysisDivided at Home: How Israelis Saw the Iraq War
The idea that Israel pushed America into Iraq was popular on both the left and the right. The record at home was messier: Israeli opinion was split, and the government's calculations were more cautious than the neoconservative project.
- AnalysisBahrain Unrest Brings Economy to a Standstill
The 2011 uprising hit Bahrain's banks, tourism and credit rating at once. More than a decade later, the island is still paying for the crisis in debt and dependence on its Gulf neighbours.
- ProfileSamia Nasir Khoury: A Palestinian Christian Voice from Birzeit
Educator, community leader and writer, Samia Nasir Khoury has spent a lifetime building institutions in Palestine and describing life under occupation to audiences abroad.
- Analysis100,000 Iraqi Dead: The Lancet Studies and the Media
In 2004 and 2006, two surveys in The Lancet estimated that the Iraq war had killed far more civilians than officials acknowledged. The fierce reaction to them became a case study in how wars are counted.
- AnalysisSaddam's Secrets: The Claim That Iraq's Weapons Went to Syria
A former Iraqi air force general wrote that Saddam Hussein had flown his weapons of mass destruction to Syria before the 2003 invasion. The claim sold books; the evidence never materialised.
- AnalysisCan American and Muslim Democracy Advocates Find Common Ground?
Washington's democracy rhetoric after 2001 raised hopes of a rapprochement with reformers in the Muslim world. The gap between words and policy made the partnership harder than it looked.
- ProfileRachelle Marshall and the High Cost of Occupation
A California writer and peace activist, Rachelle Marshall spent years chronicling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for American readers, returning again and again to one theme: what occupation costs everyone involved.
- AnalysisOccupation, Terror and the Geneva Conventions
Is it legitimate to compare the violence of occupation with the violence of attacks on civilians? The argument, made by Israeli activists like Jeff Halper, still divides opinion sharply.
- AnalysisA Jilted Lover Wooed Again: America and Pakistan
Pakistanis often describe their relationship with the United States as a betrayal by a partner who only calls when it needs something. The history explains why the anger runs so deep.
- ProfileStephen Sizer: The Vicar Who Took On Christian Zionism
An English parish priest became one of the best-known critics of Christian Zionism, and one of the most controversial.
- AnalysisFor the Love of Blogging: How Jordan Built an Online Public Square
In the mid-2000s, a small circle of Jordanian bloggers created one of the Arab world's liveliest online communities, years before social media made such spaces commonplace.
- AnalysisKurdistan Oil Exports: From 100,000 Barrels a Day to a Decade of Disputes
When the Kurdistan Region's exports first passed 100,000 barrels a day, it looked like the start of an oil boom. What followed was a long fight with Baghdad over who controls Kurdish crude and its revenue.
- ProfileArchbishop Elias Chacour: Blood Brothers and the Schools of Ibillin
Expelled from his Galilee village as a boy in 1948, Elias Chacour became a priest, an educator and an archbishop, and one of the best-known Palestinian Christian advocates of reconciliation.
- ProfileKhaled Salam: The Man Who Managed Arafat's Money
Mohammed Rashid, known as Khaled Salam, controlled much of the Palestinian Authority's commercial wealth in the Arafat years. The story of that money became a story about accountability.
- ProfileMichael Jansen: Five Decades Reporting the Middle East
An American-born correspondent based in the region since the 1960s, Michael Jansen has chronicled wars, occupations and uprisings from Beirut to Baghdad for readers in Ireland, Jordan and the Gulf.
- ReviewEmile Habiby's The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist
Half a century after it was published, Emile Habiby's darkly comic novel remains one of the sharpest portraits of life as a Palestinian inside Israel.
- AnalysisTerrorism and Nonviolence: Two Paths of Resistance
Why do some movements turn to attacks on civilians while others choose nonviolent struggle? The Palestinian experience offers evidence for both, and a clear verdict on which path wins more support.
- ReviewReview: Sharing the Land of Canaan by Mazin Qumsiyeh
A Palestinian scientist makes the case for one democratic state built on human rights. The argument has aged better than its critics expected.
- ExplainerTaybeh: The West Bank's Christian Village and Its Ancient Roots
Perched in the hills north-east of Ramallah, Taybeh traces its history to the time of Christ. Today it is known for its churches, its brewery, and the pressures facing its small Christian community.
- AnalysisGaza Turmoil: How the 2007 Fatah–Hamas Split Happened
In June 2007 Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip after days of fighting with Fatah. The split that followed still defines Palestinian politics.
- ExplainerThe Prophet Muhammad's Promise to Christians
A covenant attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, preserved for centuries at St Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, promises protection to Christians. What does it say, and how authentic is it?
- NewsLibyan Revolutionary Forces Celebrate Gains as Fierce Fighting Rages in Gadhafi's Hometown
The battle for Sirte in 2011 was the last major fight of Libya's revolution. It ended with Muammar Gadhafi's death, and left a city in ruins and a country without a plan.
- ProfileArchbishop Theodosios Atallah Hanna: A Palestinian Voice in the Orthodox Church
The Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Sebastia is one of the most outspoken Palestinian Christian clerics, known for his defence of Jerusalem's Christians and his calls for Muslim-Christian unity.
- ProfileRev. Donald Wagner: An American Evangelical Critic of Christian Zionism
A Presbyterian minister and scholar, Donald Wagner spent decades urging American evangelicals to see Palestinian Christians, and Palestinians generally, as part of the story of the Holy Land.
- ProfileJerry Levin: From Hostage in Beirut to Peacemaker in Hebron
CNN's Beirut bureau chief was kidnapped by Hezbollah-linked militants in 1984. What he did after his escape surprised many who knew his story.