Middle East Politics

Terrorism expert Erick Stakelbeck pulls back the curtain on ISIS, the violent terrorist organization spreading death and hate in the Middle East. The rise of ISIS took the White House by complete surprise: President Obama called the group "JV" then was forced to reassess when ISIS began executing innocent American journalists. Now radicalized Americans and Europeans are joining ISIS' ranks.

Der brodelnde Konflikt im Iran - präzise analysiert von Nahost-Experte Michael Lüders. Der Orient kommt nicht zur Ruhe. Während die Kämpfe vor allem in Syrien andauern, zeichnet sich bereits der nächste Konflikt ab: Präsident Trump und seine Verbündeten nehmen den Iran ins Visier. Unter Obama wurde 2015 das Atomabkommen mit dem Iran geschlossen. Doch obwohl Teheran sich erwiesenermaßen an alle Verpflichtungen hält, bricht der Konflikt jetzt erneut auf. Warum ist das so? Ist der Iran wirklich ein "Schurkenstaat"?

Con "La rabbia e l'orgoglio" (2001), Oriana Fallaci rompe un silenzio durato dieci anni, dalla pubblicazione di "Insciallah", epico romanzo sulla missione occidentale di pace nella Beirut dilaniata dallo scontro tra cristiani e musulmani e dalle faide con Israele. Dieci anni in cui la Fallaci sceglie di vivere ritirata nella sua casa newyorchese, come in esilio, a combattere il cancro. Ma non smette mai di lavorare al testo narrativo dedicato alla sua famiglia, quello che lei chiama "il-mio-bambino", pubblicato postumo nel 2008, "Un cappello pieno di ciliege".

In 2011 a series of antigovernment uprisings shook the Middle East and North Africa in what would become known as the Arab Spring. Few could predict that these convulsions, initially hailed in the West as a triumph of democracy, would give way to brutal civil war, the terrors of the Islamic State, and a global refugee crisis. But, as New York Times best-selling author Scott Anderson shows, the seeds of catastrophe had been sown long before. In this gripping account, Anderson examines the myriad complex causes of the region's profound unraveling.

Bigger than Watergate! Bigger than Iran-Contra! Ten times bigger than both, said one representative. The Bengahzi scandal may have been covered up by the White House, but the truth is about to come out. The Real Benghazi Story is a groundbreaking investigative work that finally exposes some of the most significant issues related to the murderous September 11, 2012, attack - information with current national security implications.

Journalist Krithika Varagur's Da'wa chronicles the House of Saud as it systematically transforms the Muslim world in its own image, in one of the major imperial projects in today's world, on par with China's economic diplomacy. Since 1979, Saudi Arabia has spent $1.8 billion per year, by one estimate, to propagate its puritanical brand of Islam, called Salafism or Wahhabism. It has kept scrupulous records of its religious activity in 27 countries, with over 4,000 Salafi preachers on its payroll worldwide.

Since the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, uncounted thousands of civilians have died in the fighting and as a result of the destruction. In The Bodies in Person, Nick McDonell introduces us to some of the civilians who died, along with the rescue workers who tried to save them, US soldiers grappling with their deaths, and everyone in between. He shows us how decent Americans, inside and outside the government and military, looked away from the mounting death toll, even as they claimed to do everything in their power to prevent civilian casualties.

When Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, in December 2010, sparking a wave of popular uprisings that would topple dictatorial regimes across North Africa and the Middle East, observers hailed the onset of a great “Arab Awakening.” But this wasn’t the first time people in Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere across the region had taken to the streets demanding fundamental change.

In early 2011, the world’s attention was riveted on Cairo, where after three decades of supremacy, Hosni Mubarak was driven from power. It was a revolution as swift as it was explosive. For 18 days, anger, defiance, and resurgent national pride reigned in the streets - protestors of all ages struck back against police and state security, united toward the common goal of liberation. But the revolution was more than a spontaneous uprising. It was the end result of years of mounting tension, brought on by a state that shamelessly abused its authority, rigging elections, silencing opposition, and violently attacking its citizens.

Israel's critics in the West insist that no country founded on a single religion or culture can stay democratic and prosperous - but they're wrong. In The Promise of Israel, Daniel Gordis points out that Israel has defied that conventional wisdom. It has provided its citizens infinitely greater liberty and prosperity than anyone expected, faring far better than any other young nation. Israel's "magic" is a unique blend of democracy and tradition, of unabashed particularism coupled to intellectual and cultural openness.

The symbol of the Jewish State was the noble pioneer draining the swamps and making the deserts bloom: the legendary kibbutznik. So what ever happened to the pioneers’ dream of founding a socialist utopia in the land called Palestine? Chasing Utopia: The Future of the Kibbutz in a Divided Israel draws listeners into the quest for answers to the defining political conflict of our era. Acclaimed author David Leach revisits his raucous memories of life as a kibbutz volunteer and returns to meet a new generation of Jewish and Arab citizens struggling to forge a better future together.

Jay Sekulow presents a political and historical rationale for the existence of Israel as a sovereign nation. Here is the audiobook that defends Israel's right to exist as a sovereign nation. As chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, Sekulow has fought with Israel hand-in-hand in some of Israel's most strategic, international battles. Now, he has pulled together the definitive and comprehensive look at Israel - one of the world's most controversial nations - and its importance to us as Americans and as a key focal point to the future of the world.

A spirited artist with a can-do attitude, Yvonne Wakefield leaves behind a secure life in the lush Pacific Northwest to teach art in the desert state of Kuwait. Over the course of six years, she will instruct university-aged Muslim women, earn her students' trust, and learn the consequences of freedom of expression, taken for granted in one culture but not granted in another. Despite obstacles set by her detractors, she persists, and her students and life in Kuwait flourish.

Tratar de entender y contar lo que allí ocurre se ha convertido en la forma de vida de este periodista desde que llegó a Oriente Medio hace ya una década. Es el propósito que persigue este audiolibro, hecho de pedazos imprescindibles de una vida guiada por la brújula de la actualidad, a través de una región que se desangra como una enorme herida abierta.

In 1999, Munjed Al Muderis was a surgical resident working in Baghdad when the military police marched into the operating theatre and ordered the team to mutilate army deserters. When the head of surgery refused, he was executed. Munjed's choices were stark - comply and breach the medical oath, refuse and face death or flee. That day, Munjed's life changed forever. He escaped to Indonesia and boarded a boat to Australia.

A journalist returns to her family home in Iran, witnessing enormous political, social, and personal change.

An American, secular, diasporic Jew, Lis Harris grew up with the knowledge of the historical wrongs done to Jews. In adulthood, she developed a growing awareness of the wrongs they in turn had done to the Palestinian people. This gave her an intense desire to understand how the Israelis’ history led them to where they are now. However, she found that top-down political accounts and insider assessments made the people most affected seem like chess pieces.

Intimate and political, In This Place Together opens us up to the dangers and hopes of working with others across vast differences in power and experience. And it opens a new space, shapes a third narrative, and finds another world that can exist - though it’s often hard to see - inside this one.

Gamal Abdel Nasser has been called many things. The father of modern-day Egypt. The founder of Arab nationalism. The leader of the Egyptian Revolution. The second president of the Egyptian Republic. The creator of his own brand of political and social governance - Nasserism. Anthony Eden, the former British Prime Minister, called him the "Mussolini of the Nile."

The events of the Arab Spring have come to be overshadowed by the civil war in the Arabic-speaking nation of Syria, which has been ruled throughout the 21st century by Bashar al-Assad. Though he had not planned on ruling Syria, several events conspired to make Bashar the successor of his father, Hafez. Though the West frequently looked for signs that Bashar might be a reformer, due in part to his formerly popular Western wife, Assad remained part of a critical alliance with Iran and the sub-state groups Hamas and Hezbollah.