August 15, 2009

The definitive word on 'confidence building measures'

... comes from Ezzedine Choukri in this great piece in Al-Ahram Weekly. (HT: Abdulmoneim Said Aly at MEI on Thursday.) Choukri's piece is an excellent illustration of the thinking by...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:48 AM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

July 09, 2009

NYT plays catchup with JWN on Mubarak story

Yesterday evening I put up a short post here about the fears swirling around the Middle East about the possible physical weakening of Egypt's 81-year-old President Hosni Mubarak, an authoritarian...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:15 PM | Fulltext link (8 comments)

July 08, 2009

Mubarak's hold on power weakening?

There have been several reports in both the Arab and Israeli media in recent days that Egypt's ageing, 28-year president Hosni Mubarak may be weakening his long-clenched hold on power....
Posted by Helena Cobban at 07:20 PM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

April 24, 2009

On bank governance: A modest proposal

I couldn't help but be struck by the photo at the top of this article in today's NYT, showing the CEO's of the US's 19 major banks lined up to...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:56 PM | Fulltext link (11 comments)

March 21, 2009

"Gaza first" on the horizon?

With respect to the Egyptian-Palestinian-Israeli triangle as it manifests regarding Gaza, I'd add the following general notes: 1. Egypt and Hamas share a strong interest in preventing Gaza's 1.5 million...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:18 PM | Fulltext link (5 comments)

IPS piece on Egypt's diplo challenges

I had a new piece up on IPS yesterday, titled " Pressure Mounts on Egypt to Deliver Results". You can find it on IPS here and on my analysis-archive here....
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:10 AM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

February 14, 2009

One further note about Egypt

I want to clarify regarding this sentence in the IPS piece about Egypt that I filed yesterday... "The arguments the state media made that Egypt should put its own interests...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 07:21 AM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

February 13, 2009

My IPS piece on Egypt's role, and related observations

My latest IPS analysis, " Egypt's Star Rising in Regional Politics", is here. The key judgment I made there was this one: If, as all the polls indicate, U.S. ally...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:28 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

February 11, 2009

Philip Rizk, freed

On the Facebook page for Philip Rizk, the following message was posted at 4 a.m. this morning, Cairo time: Philip is out, he is safe and home with his family....
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:15 AM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

February 08, 2009

Egypt: Free Philip Rizk!

I tried to call Philip Rizk in Cairo today, but he didn't answer. Philip is a courageous and principled young man, of joint Egyptian and German nationality, who has done...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:09 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

September 01, 2008

Egyptian delegation to break Gaza siege

The plan, as described on Hamas's website here, could be huge. It will almost certainly have a much bigger impact than the two-small-ship siege-busting effort undertaken from Europe last month....
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:02 AM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

April 07, 2008

Serious unrest in US ally, Egypt

Ever since the Washington managed to broker the 1978 Camp David agreement between Egypt and Israel, Egypt has played a huge role in American military planning in the Middle East....
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:47 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

March 31, 2008

Human Rights Watch opposes Egypt's political arrests

Kudos to Human Rights Watch for having issued a strong statement criticizing the Egyptian government’s continuing mass round-up of opposition activists and would-be candidates. This campaign, HRW said, "puts the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:59 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

March 20, 2008

Problems inside Egypt's ruling party?

Egypt's landmark local elections are coming up April 8. As noted in my 'Delicious' comments over recent weeks, the Mubarak regime has gone to great lengths to prevent representatives of...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:26 AM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

March 10, 2008

Support democratic principles in Egypt!

Reuters is reporting from Cairo that Egypt's biggest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood says that only 50 or 60 of the thousands of its members who have tried to register...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 05:19 PM | Fulltext link (13 comments)

March 08, 2008

Progress in the Gaza ceasefire talks?

The western MSM has been fixated on Thursday's tragic, unjustifiable killings of eight students at a West Jerusalem yeshiva (Jewish religious school), and to a lesser extent on the effect...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:25 PM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

February 11, 2008

Congratulations, Egypt and Abu Treika!

Egypt's national football (soccer) team won the African Nations Cup final in Ghana last night. Huge congratulations to them and to their scorer! Muhammad Abu Treika (no. 22). Abu Treika...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:25 AM | Fulltext link (8 comments)

February 09, 2008

Mubarak on the Gaza question

This is the English-language version of an interview conducted on January 30th with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak by two correspondents from Italy's La Repubblica. A very well-informed person tells me...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:52 PM | Fulltext link (9 comments)

January 31, 2008

Al-Ahram Weekly on Egypt and Gaza

I've been unbelievably busy with the galley-proofs (or whatever they call today's functional equivalent of them) of my book. Five chapters down, and two to finish tomorrow... Meanwhile, I see...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:07 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

February 23, 2007

Interview with Dr. Abdel Monem Abul-Futouh

Posted by Helena Cobban at 05:37 AM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

February 22, 2007

Egyptian blogging on trial

The trial of Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer, who is on trial for his writings criticizing Egypt's al-Azhar religious authorities, Islam and President Husni Mubarak, resumes in his home town of...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:50 AM | Fulltext link (5 comments)

February 21, 2007

Notes from Cairo, #3

I have been incredibly busy, "uploading" information and impressions from here in Egypt into my brain, renewing old acquaintances here, making new ones, rushing around in general. My daughter-- and...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:36 AM | Fulltext link (20 comments)

February 17, 2007

Interview with Dr. Issam el-Arian

Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:42 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

Notes from Cairo, #2

I have gathered such a lot of great material from my time here in Egypt so far that it has been a challenge for me to figure out how to...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:55 AM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

February 08, 2007

Sunni Arab view of US-Iran Tensions

If jwn readers and our generous host will pardon me, I (Scott) wish to draw early attention to Helena Cobban's important column in today's Christian Science Monitor. Writing from Cairo,...
Posted by Scott Harrop at 12:01 AM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

April 16, 2006

Violence and tragedy in Egypt

Posted by Helena Cobban at 06:22 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

February 08, 2004

Luxor fun

We had a totally awesome three days checking out various tombs and ancient temples in Luxor. I got back to Cairo yesterday, and started pulling together the raw materials for...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:44 AM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

February 03, 2004

Posting from Egypt

I'm traveling in Egypt this week. Not sure how much I'll actually learn about What Egyptians Think, since we're doing mainly touristy stuff (Luxor, etc.) And I am not the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:08 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)