John Kerry, the U.S. secretary of state, had a clear message for Egypt, a key Arab ally, when he visited Cairo on August 1. Warning the authoritarian Egyptian government that it could lose its battle against domestic terrorism unless it shows far more respect for human rights, he said, “The success of our fight against […]
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s accession to Egypt’s presidency is yet another stunning blow to the already battered Muslim Brotherhood. Sisi, previously chief of staff of the armed forces and defence minister, defeated his only credible opponent, Hamdeen Sabahi, a disciple of the late Abdel Gamal Nasser, by a whopping margin in last month’s election. Sisi, who […]
On March 26, Field Marshal Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt’s minister of defence and strongman, announced his resignation from the army and his decision to run for the presidency. No one was surprised by the announcement. It had been widely expected. Sisi’s ascendancy in Egyptian politics has been nothing short of meteoric. Hosni Mubarak appointed him head […]
The Human Rights Watch Film Festival, an annual fixture of the Toronto International Film Festival, opens at the TIFF Lightbox on Feb. 27 with The Square and closes on March 6 with Highway of Tears. In all, eight movies will be screened. Jehane Noujaim’s The Square, which is available on Netflix, charts the zig-zag course of […]
On my last visit to Egypt 14 years ago, I could sense that the Jewish community was already a relic of history. Doomed by the Arab-Israeli conflict, in which Egypt was deeply enmeshed by virtue of its pan-Arab foreign policy and its four wars with Israel, Egyptian Jews became the scapegoats of regional politics. The […]