A pope and a grand imam
Pope Tawadros II had planned to spend last week on retreat in a monastery near Alexandria. But then Mohammed bin Salman, on a three-day visit to Egypt, asked to see him. The Saudi Crown...
Egyptians
Egypt Launches Massive Anti-terrorism Operation ahead of March Elections
In a surprise move, Egypt launched a massive anti-terrori...
Policy Briefs
Russia Risks a Showdown with Israel Over Hezbollah in Syria
Back in 1967, Moscow shrugged when Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser closed the Straits of Tiran, cutting shipping routes to the Israeli port of Eilat—Israel’s only one in the Red...
Op-eds
Mubarak Freed, Egypt Shrugs
Hosni Mubarak was freed Friday from a military hospital in the Cairo suburb of Maadi, six years after mas...
Policy Briefs
Egypt’s Unlikely Ardor for Trump
More than three weeks after the election, the American public remains divided...
Op-eds
The Truth About Egypt’s Revolution
The usual account of Egypt’s revolution goes like this: In February 2011, Hosni Mubarak resigned after 18 days...
Op-eds
The Israel-Egypt partnership deepens
Egypt last week marked Revolution Day, the day commemorating the 1952 Free Officers' revolt that toppled the playboy King Farouk. Next door in Israel, the Egyptian embassy threw a party....
Op-eds
By blocking UN vote, Egypt sticks finger in Turkey’s eye
Egypt blocked a United Nations Security Council resolution this past Saturday that...
Op-eds
ISIS Targets Egypt
Earlier this month, the Islamic State (ISIS) launched a massive media campaign in support of the insurgency in Sinai. Officials from 14 of its so-called provinces in Iraq, Libya, and Syria ...
Op-eds
Egypt hands strategic Red Sea islands to Saudis, and Israel doesn’t object
Egypt and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement Saturday for Cairo to return control of two uninhabited but strategic Red Sea islands to the kingdom. The islands — Tiran and Sanafir — lie...
Op-eds
Dissent likely to be muted on Egyptian revolution’s fifth anniversary
Monday is the fifth anniversary of Egypt's Jan. 25 revolution, but you'd be forgiven for not noticing. The government is waging the ...
Op-eds
Five Years Later: How the US and EU Failed the Arab Spring
Thursday marked the five-year anniversary of the outbreak of the Arab Spring when a young Tunisian, Muhammad Bouazizi, set himself ablaze in 2010 to protest the regime’s seizure of his vege...
Op-eds
Why Hamas Has Not Unleashed Violence From Gaza
Israel’s internal security services, the Shin Bet, said earlier this month that the Palestinian militant group Hamas is among the key drivers of the violence raging in the We...
Op-eds
Omar
One day in the mid-sixties I was on a Pan Am 747 from London to Chicago, sitting next to my then-employer, Omar Sharif. I was a member of the “Omar Sharif Bridge Circus,” an unl...
Op-eds
New TV Show Highlights Egypt’s Jewish Problem
A new television series is shaking up the lucrative Ramadan viewing season in Egypt. The program – titled “The Jewish Quarter” and set in the late 1940s and early 50s – de...
Op-eds
Terrorism and Tourism in Egypt
Unidentified gunmen on motorcycles killed two members of the tourist police Wednesday at...
Op-eds
Egypt’s Religious Freedom Farce
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt presents himself as an Islamic reformer. He has...
Op-eds
The Summit That Wasn’t
I’d venture to guess that most of what you heard about President Obama’s summit last week was wrong. To start, it wasn’t a “summit.” That term, coined by Winston Chu...
Op-eds
When Israel Helped Yemen’s Shiites
Yemen’s Houthi rebels accuse Israel of standing behind the Saudi-led military campaign launched against t...
Op-eds
Bold Plans at Egypt’s Economic Summit, But Challenges Linger
Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi has a flair for dramatic gestures. In his nine months in office, the Egyptian president has challenged the state’s...