Why Are Turks Intolerant? Mustafa Akyol offers his take on Semih Idiz's recent piece, “Just How Tolerant Are Turks?" Turkey
Mother of the Year Award Goes to Gaza Widow Aisha Abu Shannab lost her husband and son to war, but has managed to raise her remaining children and run a small NGO for widows in Gaza, Rami Almeghari writes. Palestine
Iraqi Factions Debate Transferring Ministerial Powers to Provinces Iraqi politicians have divided along factional lines in a debate over whether certain ministries should be shifted from federal to provinicial authority, reports Omar al-Shaher. Iraq
Jabhat al-Nusra and Hezbollah In First Confrontation For the first time in the 23-month-old Syrian civil war, Jabhat al-Nusra and Hezbollah have been involved in direct confrontations, writes Jean Aziz. Lebanon
Kurds Protest Iraqi Forces Sent To Disputed Region on Syrian Border Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki deploys forces to the Sinjar province, near the Syrian border, upsetting local Kurds and signaling an escalation of the Syrian conflict to Iraq, reports Abdel Hamid Zebari. Iraq
Lebanese Elections Likely to Face Postponement As the debate regarding the Orthodox Gathering law rages on, amid a complicated web of alliances between Lebanon’s sectarian contingents, elections are unlikely to take place according to schedule, writes Elie Hajj. Lebanon
High Stakes for Erdogan In Turkish Talks With PKK Semih Idiz considers whether Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and imprisoned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan are speaking past each other in the current Imrali process. Turkey
'Regime Can’t Go On Like This,' Says Syrian Opposition Leader Cengiz Çandar talks with Sheikh Moaz al-Khatib, leader of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, about the roles and interests of the United States, Russia and Iran in Syria and his efforts to arrive at a solution to the crisis. Turkey
Iraqi Provincial Election Campaigns Begin The electoral campaigns are starting for the April 2013 elections, with calls from senior clerics for clean campaigning by candidates, writes Mustafa al-Kadhimi. Iraq
Palestinian Women Set Back By Conservative Society Recent moves against women's rights in Gaza show a retraction of the once revered role of Palestinian women in the resistance, Daoud Kuttab writes. Palestine
World Powers Blinked First In Iran Nuclear Talks Alon Ben David writes that the outcome of the nuclear talks in Kazakhstan has put the option of an Israeli attack back on the agenda in Jerusalem. Israel
Dissension Emerges Among Islamists In Egypt, Tunisia The divisions among Islamic parties have hampered stability and governance in Egypt and Tunisia, writes Nassif Hitti. Egypt
Feminists Empower Opposition In New Israeli Knesset Mazal Mualem foresees the new Knesset opposition parties to be both diverse and formidable. Israel
Arab Women in Israel: From Oppression to Empowerment Amal Abu Sayyaf, a doctoral candidate from Ben Gurion University of the Negev, levels some harsh charges against the tolerance shown by Israeli society toward the phenomenon of oppressed Arab women, writes Shlomi Eldar. Israel
My Mother Inspired Us to Fight For Palestinian Rights On International Women’s Day, lawyer-activist Shireen Issawi writes about how her mother inspired her and her brother, Samer Issawi, who has been on a hunger strike in an Israeli prison for some 222 days, to fight for Palestinian independence. Palestine
Turkey Upgrades Palestinian Ties Although Turkey’s consul general in Jerusalem will present his letter of accreditation to Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, Turkish diplomatic sources insist that Turkey is not “appointing an ambassador to Palestine,” writes Tulin Daloglu. Turkey
