Middle East Quarterly

Middle East Quarterly - Current Issue
Founded in 1994 by Daniel Pipes, MEQ is the Middle East Forum’s journal intended for both scholars and the educated public. Policymakers, opinion-makers, academics, and journalists write for and read the Quarterly, which is known for exclusive interviews, in-depth historical articles, and book reviews on subjects ranging from archaeology to politics and on countries from Morocco to Iran.


Spring 2026 Volume 33: Number 2
The Palestinian right of return is primarily a political and ideological claim rather than a binding legal one supported by international law. In 1974, Yasser Arafat championed it at the U.N., declaring that Zionism is "colonialist", "imperialist," and "racist." The right of return continues to shape Palestinian politics and Western diplomacy, and remains a central factor in the persistence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Middle East Quarterly
Palestinian Intransigence and the “Right of Return”
February 27, 2026
Middle East Quarterly
Trump’s Twenty-Point Plan and Hamas’s Rebirth
February 27, 2026
Map of Nubl and al-Zahra in northern Aleppo countryside (10 June 2018). The map shows the locations of the two Twelver Shiite towns, Nubl and al-Zahra, within territories held by Syrian government forces (blue), opposition forces (green), and Kurdish forces (yellow) during the Syrian civil war. Despite their isolation amid Sunni and Kurdish regions, both towns have largely avoided post-Assad violence and serve as case studies in localized stability and minority protection.
Middle East Quarterly
Eyewitness Report: Twelver Shiite Villages of Nubl and al-Zahra in the Aleppo Countryside in the Post-Assad Period
February 27, 2026
The June 2025 Israeli military campaign, backed by the U.S., significantly weakened Iran’s strategic capabilities and reshaped regional dynamics. Rather than accelerating formal Saudi-Israeli normalization, it produced a post-liberal Middle East in which Saudi Arabia treats Israel as a covert partner and constrained outsider while competing for regional primacy. (Shutterstock/Asset ID: 2096850640)
Middle East Quarterly
Inter-Arab Rivalry and Regional Hierarchy in the Post–Liberal Middle East
February 27, 2026
Middle East Quarterly
Book Reviews
February 27, 2026
Book Reviews
Winter 2026
Middle East Quarterly
War With Israel: Comparing IS and Al-Qaeda
December 9, 2024
 · 
Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
Book Reviews
Shenit Lo Tipol: Yisrael BeMizrach Tichon Garini [Shall Not Fall Again: Israel in a Nuclear Middle East]
December 9, 2024
Book Reviews
Iranian Women and Gender in the Iran-Iraq War
December 9, 2024
Book Reviews
No Nos Taparán: Islam, Velo, Patriarcado [They Will Not Cover Us Up: Islam, Veil, and Patriarchy]
December 9, 2024
Book Reviews
Feminismo E Islam: Una Ecuación Imposible [Feminism and Islam: An Impossible Equation]
December 9, 2024
Book Reviews
The Culture Transplant: How Migrants Make the Economies They Move To a Lot Like the Ones They Left
December 9, 2024
Book Reviews
Narrating the Pilgrimage to Mecca: Historical and Contemporary Accounts
December 9, 2024
Book Reviews
The Only Jew in the Room: Searching for Understanding in an Arab Islamic College
December 9, 2024
Book Reviews
Freedoms Delayed: Political Legacies of Islamic Law in the Middle East
October 7, 2024
Book Reviews
Jewish Muslims: How Christians Imagined Islam as the Enemy
October 4, 2024
Issue Archive
Fall 2025
Summer 2025
Spring 2025
Winter 2025
Fall 2024
Summer 2024
Spring 2024
Winter 2024
Fall 2023
Summer 2023
Spring 2023
Winter 2023
Winter 2026
Jerusalem in the early twentieth century.
Middle East Quarterly
‘The Bride Is Beautiful But She Is Married to Another Man’ Stories
September 11, 2024
 · 
Shai Afsai
Ahnaf Kalam
Middle East Quarterly
A Muslim Aliyah Paralleled the Jewish Aliyah: Part II, Since 1948
September 11, 2024
Book Reviews
Israel Victory: How Zionists Win Acceptance and Palestinians Get Liberated
September 11, 2024
Middle East Quarterly
Brief Reviews
September 11, 2024
Middle East Quarterly
Can the Lebanese End the Hezbollah Dystopia?
September 11, 2024
 · 
Eric Bordenkircher
Book Reviews
The End of Ambition: America’s Past, Present, and Future in the Middle East.
September 11, 2024
Book Reviews
A History of the Muslim World: From Its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity
September 11, 2024
Book Reviews
The Kingdom and the Qur’an: Translating the Holy Book of Islam in Saudi Arabia (The Global Qur’an)
September 11, 2024
Book Reviews
In Obscura: Adventures in the World of Intelligence. Part I.
September 11, 2024
Book Reviews
Qur’an Translation as a Modern Phenomenon (Texts and Studies on the Qur’an, 21)
September 11, 2024
Load More
More from MEF
Middle East Forum Online
Turkish Businessman Alleges Major Extortion Network Linking Media, Judiciary, and Organized Crime
Explosive Claims Point to Coordinated Pressure Campaign Targeting Wealthy Individuals
April 8, 2026
 · 
Abdullah Bozkurt
Middle East Forum Online
Algeria’s Managed Democracy: When Elections Change Nothing
When Authoritarian Systems Feel the Pressure of Accumulated Illegitimacy, They Announce Elections
April 7, 2026
 · 
Amine Ayoub
Swedish citizen Kourosh Keyvani was sentenced for “spying for Israel,” which in Iran is like saying “you ran a red light.” He was hanged in Tehran on March 18, 2026. Stockholm summoned the Iranian ambassador “to protest the execution of a Swedish citizen.”
Middle East Forum Online
Time to Crack Down on Iran’s Kangaroo Courts
The U.S. And Israel Should Target the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Core Pillar of Repression: The Judiciary
April 7, 2026
 · 
Elliot Nazar
Load More