Class divisions in Israeli society – Emmanuel Farjoun
The political allegiance of Israel’s Oriental Jews to the Likkud, and their rejection of Labour, are firmly rooted in the history and class structure of Israeli society.
The Oriental Support for Begin – Avishai Ehrlich
A critique of Farjoun's Class divisions in Israeli society.
Observations in Gaza – S. Ur
The tales of repression and resistance we were told that evening, as well as the accounts and testimonies we were to hear during the next few days, are hardly known outside the Strip. 'There is no Hilton Hotel in this town,' remarked a Gazan friend, 'and journalists hate discomfort. They never stay here longer than a couple of hours.'
The rise of Islam: What did happen to women? – Azar Tabari [Afsaneh Najmabadi]
This article was written several years ago, as a discussion paper... I believe that some of what it contains may still serve as a starting point for further discussion and clarification.
Discussion Forum: State capitalism in Egypt: a critique of Patrick Clawson – Clive Bradley
The question mark hanging over Egypt is whether the bourgeoisie can impose its solution, or whether the working class can smash the bourgeois state and reorganise production. If those of us outside Egypt can contribute something by way of analysis for and solidarity with the workers in Egypt, all the ink that has flowed will have been worthwhile.
Discussion Forum: Reply to Israel Shahak – Roberto Sussman
A Judeophobic anti-Zionism is the best weapon in the hands of Zionists. Rather, it is the task of progressive anti-Zionists (Jews and non-Jews alike) to challenge Zionism as a false liberation, or better, as a total surrender to antisemitism and an actual negation of liberation.
Book review: Roots of Revolution by Nikki R. Keddie – Azar Tabari [Afsaneh Najmabadi]
Nikki R. Keddie, Roots of Revolution: An Interpretive History of Modern Iran; With a section by Yann Richard.
Book Review: Covering Islam by Edward W. Said – Philip Schlesinger
Edward W. Said, Covering Islam: How the media and the experts determine how we see the rest of the World.
Book Review: Kibbutz Community and Nation Building by Paula Rayman – Nira Yuval-Davis
The picture that emerges in the book is very different from the popular myth of the kibbutz , which can be seen as a commune not so much of utopian socialists as of militants of a colonialist-nationalist movement.
Book Review: Life among the Poor in Cairo by Unni Wikan – Maxine Molyneux
The families in the study are desperately poor although they are not the poorest of Egypt's capital city. They at least have somewhere to live other than cemeteries and sewers, and they have a wage earner in the family. But no family has an income sufficient to meet its needs.
Editorial
This issue of Khamsin continues the crucial debate on religion in the Middle East and its reactionary impact on politics in the region today.
The Jewish religion and its attitude to non-Jews: Part 3 – Israel Shahak
The Jewish religion and its attitude to non-Jews - Part-3: Social Structure of Classical Judaism
The Jewish religion and its attitude to non-Jews: Appendix – Israel Shahak
The Jewish religion and its attitude to non-Jews – Appendix: Talmudic and rabbinical laws against gentiles
Role of the Shi’i clergy in modern Iranian politics ‒ Azar Tabari [Afsaneh Najmabadi]
Analysis of the political evolution of Iran's Shi'ite clergy from the late 19th century to their seizure of state power in the February 1979 revolution, looking specifically at how they were able to sustain themselves in politics for so long and why, in the latter half of the 1970s, they experienced a militant revival.
The development of capitalism in Egypt – Patrick Clawson
A major work on the structure of Egyptian capitalism and the changes it has undergone throughout its history, arguing that these changes can be understood only as part of developments in international capitalism and the demands of advanced capitalist countries.
Tragic heroes and victims in Zionist ideology ‒ Toine van Teeffelen
A common image employed in interpreting the Israeli-Arab conflict views it in terms of a moral symmetry: both parties ‒ Israeli Jewish and Palestinian Arab ‒ are in the right, both have a legitimate claim to the same country and are engaged in a tragic struggle with each other for possession of the land. But beneath the surface its basic message seems to be that the one party (Israel) is human and the other one is not.
Editorial
In the Arab world, not only has there never been a serious bourgeois-liberal challenge to religion and clericalism, but the left too has for the most part avoided the issue or pussyfooted round it.
Orientalism and Orientalism in Reverse – Sadik Jalal al-‘Azm
On Edward Said's Orientalism, and Orientalism in reverse
The Jewish religion and its attitude to non-Jews: Part 1 – Israel Shahak
The Jewish religion and its attitude to non-Jews - Part-1: Prejudice and Prevarications
The Jewish religion and its attitude to non-Jews: Part 2 – Israel Shahak
The Jewish religion and its attitude to non-Jews - Part-2: Structure of the Legal Edifice