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Enclosed by the Suez Canal and bordering Gaza and Israel, Egypt's rugged Sinai Peninsula has been the cornerstone of the Egyptian-Israeli peace accords, yet its internal politics and security have remained largely under media blackout. While the international press descended on the capital Cairo in January 2011, Sinai's armed rebellion was ignored. The regime lost control of the peninsula in a matter of days and, since then, unprecedented chaos has reigned and the Islamist insurgency has gathered pace. In this crucial analysis, Mohannad Sabry argues that Egypt's shortsighted security approach has continually proven to be a failure. Decades of flawed policies have exacerbated immense social and economic problems, and maintained a superficial stability under which arms trafficking, the smuggling tunnels, and militancy could silently thrive-and finally prevail following the overthrow of Mubarak. Sinai is vital reading for scholars, journalists, policy makers, and all those concerned by the plunge of one of the Middle East's most critical regions into turmoil.
Focused on three Egyptian revolutions—in 1919, 1952, and 2011—this edited book argues that each of these revolutions is a milestone which represents a meaningful turning point in modern Egyptian history. Revolutions are typically characterized by a fundamental change in political and social infrastructures as well as in the establishment of new values and norms. However, it should be noted that this may not be entirely applicable when examining the context of the three Egyptian revolutions: the 1919 revolution failed to liberate Egypt from British colonial hegemony; the 1952 revolution failed to rework the country’s social and economic systems and unify the Arab world; and the "Arab Sp...
This book examines the evolving threat of terrorism and draws on the latest research to assess future trends. The author assumes that terrorism will remain a potent threat to the international system throughout the twenty-first century, primarily because of the convergence of two negative trends: the availability of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Weapons (CBRN) - also known as Weapons of Mass Destruction - and the proliferation of terrorist organizations seeking to achieve mass casualties. Even without the CBRN element, however, Smith maintains that terrorism will remain an ongoing threat. The book also explores specific aspects of contemporary terrorism, including political, social, economic, religious, and ideological factors, globalization as a stimulation to contemporary terrorism, the role of organized crime in terrorist movements, and more. Written with students in college and professional programs in mind, the book includes case studies interspersed throughout the chapters that provide clarifying examples.
This book concentrates on the formative period of the Gaza Strip and the bordering Israeli Gaza Frontier Area, considering them as a distinct geographic region that might best be understood as an integral unit of analysis. Based on abundant Israeli, British and American documentation, articles from the contemporary Arab press and other sources that reflect Arab perspectives, the book deals with the formation of the Gaza Strip between the initial drawing of the boundaries of the 1947 UN partition plan until the Israeli withdrawal from the area in March 1957, following the 1956 War. It also concentrates on the development of the Israeli urban and rural settlement systems that enveloped the Gaz...
This book explores the political trajectories of various countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, tracing the shifts in party systems and regime transitions along a model‐like trajectory that spans from revolutionism to authoritarianism and electoral Islamism. Adopting a comparative perspective, this book places patterns of party formation and developments in authoritarian and semi‐authoritarian systems within a historical and regional context. It argues that during distinct periods, such as the prevalence of nationalism in the 1920s pre‐independence era, the flourishing of pan‐Arabism in the 1950s, and the rise of Islamism in the 1970s, ideologies have played a p...
This book offers an evaluation of female suicide bombers through postcolonial, Third World, feminist, and human-rights framework, drawing on case studies from conflicts in Palestine, Sri Lanka, and Chechnya, among others. Women Suicide Bombers explores why cultural, media and political reports from various geographies present different information about and portraits of the same women suicide bombers. The majority of Western media and sovereign states engaged in wars against groups deploying bombings tend to focus on women bombers' abnormal mental conditions; their physicality-for example, their painted fingernails or their beautiful eyes; their sexualities; and the various ways in which the...
This book offers an in-depth analysis of the nationalist ideas and practices of Turkey’s Nationalist Action Party (MHP) from its founder, Alparslan Türkeş, to its current leader, Devlet Bahçeli. Applying both diachronic and synchronic approaches to the multidimensionality of nationalism, the book analyzes how Türkeş and Bahçeli emphasized or de-emphasized ethnic, cultural, and civic components of the party’s nationalism in response to the threats they perceived in specific historical contexts. The author draws on party documents, speeches, and interviews to examine how recurring themes in Türkeş’s and Bahçeli’s nationalist ideas and practices have evolved over half a century...
This book examines the religious, intellectual and historical roots of the Israeli settlement movement through the lens of various strands of Zionism. The book opens with a discussion of religious Zionism, especially through the lens of the teachings of Rabbi Avraham Isaac Kook and his son Zvi Yehuda Kook. The author notes the remarkable growth of a once marginal movement into a rapidly growing stream of Judaism, highlighting its key role in the settlement project before and after the Six Day War in 1967. This is supplemented by an analysis of the role of political Zionism as embodied by key figures such as Theodor Herzl and David Ben Gurion who adapted it into a governing ethos after Indepe...
Ayalon explores the birth of Arab printing, publishing, dissemination methods, and mass readership during the formative phase from 1800 to 1914.
Female terrorists are a rare phenomenon. Less than ten terrorist organizations throughout the world have women members. These terrorist groups are either Marxist (atheist) or Jihadist in their ideologies. Sexual Jihad: The Role of Islam in Female Terrorism ascertains, “What is the role of Islam in female terrorism?” It explores the roles of women in eight jihadist case studies including: Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Boko Haram, the Chechen Separatists, HAMAS, Hezbollah, ISIS, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and Al Qaeda. Primary sources and secondary sources are used, including research conducted on Palestinian women in Israeli prisons who have been convicted of terrorism. It is argued that are three roles for women in Jihadist terrorism: the disposable, the domestic, and the secretary. The theory posited in this book is that the roles of women in terrorist groups are similar to their cultural/religious roles in society.