Cairo: September 2014

WIAM EL-TAMAMI 28 JANUARY 2015 I left Cairo on 19 April 2014. I was so glad to have left, so relieved and slightly disbelieving that I had finally loosened myself from the grip of Al-Qaahira – in Arabic the name, quite fittingly, means ‘The Oppressor’, ‘The Crusher’, ‘The Vanquisheress’. I knew that I could not be there then, but that I was

» Read more

Is Egypt on the Verge of Another Uprising?

  THANASSIS CAMBANIS, JAN 16 2015 CAIRO—Four years after the revolution he helped lead, Basem Kamel has noticeably scaled back his ambitions. The regime he and his friends thought they overthrew after storming Tahrir Square has returned. In the face of relentless pressure and violence from the authorities, most of the revolutionary movements have been sidelined or snuffed out. Egypt’s new

» Read more

How Egypt Prolonged the Gaza War

    ARGUMENT As Israel and the Palestinians struggle to reach yet another cease-fire, the mediators in Cairo are making the conflict worse — and empowering radicals in the process. BY MICHELE DUNNE , NATHAN J. BROWN AUGUST 18, 2014 As negotiations on a lasting cease-fire in Gaza grind on in Cairo, it’s not only the animosity between Israel and

» Read more

Everything was possible

  Saturday, August 17, 2013 – 22:26 by Omar Robert Hamilton I sit, for the 12th hour now, alone and struggling for what to do. For the first time since I got on a plane for Egypt on January 29, 2011, I am at a loss. Worse days than today lie ahead of us. We thought we could change the

» Read more

Egypt's Rabaa massacre: one year on

The killing of 817 protesters last August was this week judged a crime against humanity equal to, or worse, than Tiananmen Square. But feelings on the ground are mixed   Patrick Kingsley The Guardian, Saturday 16 August 2014 “To this day, I can’t believe it happened. I reached a point where I couldn’t talk to anyone. I couldn’t talk to

» Read more

A Grand Entente

Posted by Baheyya 12 Aug 2014 01:28 PM PDT In the old days, when the Israeli military bombed and shelled Palestinians and sought to destroy their society, Hosni Mubarak used a well-worn formula, fully abetting Israeli actions while uttering pro-Palestine platitudes. Occasionally, when huge protests rocked the streets, he green-lighted theatrical gestures such as his wife heading a relief convoy to

» Read more