A U.S. soldier stands guard at the K1 Air Base near Kirkuk in northern Iraq, March 29, 2020 (Photo by Ameer Al Mohammedaw for dpa via AP Images).

Editor’s Note: This is the web version of our subscriber-only weekly newsletter, Middle East Memo, which takes a look at what’s happening, what’s being said and what’s on the horizon in the Middle East. Subscribe to receive it by email every Monday. If you’re already a subscriber, adjust your newsletter settings to receive it. Sunday’s overnight air strikes by the U.S. on militia targets in Iraq and Syria immediately rekindled an important debate about deterrence and sovereignty, but also the frustrating persistence of America’s “forever wars.” How should America handle militia attacks on its forces in Iraq, a country where […]

Algerian demonstrators protest the 2019 presidential election with banners in French that read “reject the election” and “the street will not be quiet,” in Algiers, Dec. 12, 2019 (AP photo by Toufik Doudou).

Editor’s Note: This is the web version of our subscriber-only weekly newsletter, Middle East Memo, which takes a look at what’s happening, what’s being said and what’s on the horizon in the Middle East. Subscribe to receive it by email every Monday. If you’re already a subscriber, adjust your newsletter settings to receive it. As “weapons of the weak” go, boycotts hold a special pedigree. Gandhi used them in India’s struggle for independence to leverage overwhelming popular will against the British colonizers’ military superiority. The Montgomery bus boycott, organized by Martin Luther King Jr. from 1955 to 1956, showed white […]

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to right-wing opposition party members a day after a new government was sworn in, at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, June 14, 2021 (AP photo by Maya Alleruzzo).

Editor’s Note: This is the web version of our subscriber-only weekly newsletter, Middle East Memo, which takes a look at what’s happening, what’s being said and what’s on the horizon in the Middle East. Subscribe to receive it by email every Monday. If you’re already a subscriber, adjust your newsletter settings to receive it. Benjamin Netanyahu ruled Israel longer than any previous leader because he represented a powerful political consensus—one that opposed peace with Palestinians, supported settlement expansion and undermined democratic institutions and due process for Israelis. Much has rightly been made about Netanyahu’s personal corruption and lack of any […]

A member of the Popular Mobilization Forces near the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, May 26, 2021 (AP photo by Hadi Mizban).

Editor’s Note: This is the web version of our subscriber-only weekly newsletter, Middle East Memo, which takes a look at what’s happening, what’s being said and what’s on the horizon in the Middle East. Subscribe to receive it by email every Monday. If you’re already a subscriber, adjust your newsletter settings to receive it. The Iraqi state has been on life support for years. But it has lurched deeper into decline over the past few weeks, as renegade militias accelerated their assassination campaign against both dissidents and government officials, appearing to shrug off a symbolic attempt by Prime Minister Mustafa […]