Makdisi Street
A podcast co-hosted by Saree Makdisi, Ussama Makdisi, and Karim Makdisi. They discuss various topics, likely related to their expertise and interests. Follow them on X and YouTube @MakdisiStreet.
Episodes
Patron-only livestream: Latest on Iran, Lebanon and US policy
**Please join our Patreon for access to our next livestream and to submit your questions/comments** Come and join the brothers for another patron-only livestream discussion of the situation in Iran, Lebanon, and Gaza. We look forward to your questions and comments! Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Date of recording: July 16, 2026 X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @
"Their appetite grows with every war" w/ Aslı Ü. Bâli
The brothers welcome back Aslı Ü. Bâli, Professor of Law at Yale Law School, for an intense and wide-ranging discussion of the state of the Middle East in the aftermath of the failed US-Israeli war on Iran. They discuss the potential geopolitical outcomes the apparent US strategic defeat, examine the nature and assumptions of what had been American primacy over the Gulf, the liability and costs t
"FIFA is a racket" w/ Abdullah Al-Arian
With the 2026 World Cup having started in the USA, the brothers welcome Abdullah Al-Arian, Chair of History at Georgetown University Qatar and editor of Football in the Middle East: State, Society, and the Beautiful Game. We talk about how football shapes Arab identity, including the role of diaspora, and how it is instrumentalized by Arab states. We also talk about the controversies and politics
Makdisi Street Reviews w/ Eyal Weizman
In anticipation of the publication of Eyal Weizman's new book, Ungrounding: The Architecture of Genocide, which will be released in the US next month, the brothers hosted a livestream with Eyal to which our Patreon supporters had access, including the opportunity to ask questions of Eyal either via the livestream chat (which we will moderate) or in advance via email. Watch the livestream edition h
"We should not become our own worst enemy"
The brothers discuss the latest developments in the regional war, with a special focus on Lebanon and the nature of Israeli bombardment of civilian homes, which is tied to the destruction of homes on different scales across historical Palestine since 1948. The brothers also discuss co-existence in the Mashriq region and the Zionist challenge to that. Check out Ussama's article https://www.nytime
"Every war ends at the negotiating table" w/ Trita Parsi
The brothers welcome Trita Parsi back to the show to discuss the status of US-Iran negotiations, the pressures of the ongoing stalemate on both sides, the prospects of an agreement given Israel's continued disruption in Lebanon and the vagaries of Trump's egotism, whether Iran can coerce a stop to Israeli aggression in Lebanon & Germany's experience of schadenfreude in the UN. Check out Trita's Su
"Only proper deterrence works"
The brothers get together for a conversation about the ongoing Israeli war on Lebanon, the meaning of deterrence, the role of Iran in Lebanon, the question of Lebanon's sovereignty, and the divisions within Lebanon about how best to defend the country and its people. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Date of recording: May 28, 2026 Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet Insta:
"No peace and prosperity with apartheid" w/ As`ad Abukhalil
The brothers welcome Lebanese scholar and original "Angry Arab" Asad AbuKhalil, author, columnist, professor, and public intellectual. The discuss the increasing depravity of a long history of Israeli wars on Lebanon going back to 1948; why so many in Lebanon continue to put their faith in the pipe-dream of peace with a state that is actively committing genocide, the neglect of the South during t
"The Zionist project is what it has always been" w/ Jehad Abusalim
The brothers welcome to the show Jehad Abusalim, who grew up in the city of Deir el Balah in the Gaza Strip and now heads the Gaza Genocide Center. They discuss what it was like to grow up under occupation in Gaza, what normal life was like for a generation under siege, isolated and cut off from the world. They discuss the ongoing Gaza genocide, still being perpetrated by Israel (though it is no
"We cannot negotiate without national consensus" w/ Michael Young
The brothers welcome to the show Michael Young, journalist and editor of the Carnegie Middle East Center's Diwan blog, to discuss the vexed and controversial question of Lebanese-Israeli negotiations against the background of the continued Israeli bombardment and occupation of Lebanese territory and the deliberate destruction of entire towns along Lebanon's southern border. Date of recording: Apri
"It hasn't worked": Lebanese defiance of Zionist oppression w/ Karim, Ussama and Saree Makdisi
**Producer's note: This is a special co-published episode with Psychic Militancy, hosted by Makdisi Street guest Lara Sheehi. Make sure to subscribe to her channel if you haven't already!!** In this episode, I sit down with Makdisi Street podcast hosts and brothers, Karim, Ussama and Saree Makdisi to discuss the current situation in Lebanon. We get into a lot, as you can imagine, including the
"Palestine does matter" w/ Yousef Munayyer
The brothers welcome Yousef Munayyer of the Arab Center in Washington, DC to the show to discuss the US-Israeli war on Iran and Lebanon, the role of the Zionist lobby and the nature of the relationship between the US and Israel, rapidly shifting attitudes on Israel and the Palestinians among the American public, the ferocious crackdown on dissent and protest against Israeli apartheid and genocide,
"Energy is at the heart of it" w/ Laleh Khalili
The brothers welcome University of Exeter Professor Laleh Khalili to the show to discuss the geopolitical and geoeconomic contexts of the US-Israeli war of aggression on Iran, including the role of Iran and the Gulf in global energy and trade markets and circuits; shifts in international trade and finance away from circuits controlled by the US and its coercive mechanisms of financial and trade sa
"Locking in the ethnic cleansing of 1948" w/ Omar Shakir
The brothers welcome the human rights advocate Omar Shakir to the show to discuss the legal basis for the Palestinian right of return, Israel's crime against humanity for denying the right of return, the ongoing attempt to recuperate a "good Israel" of 1948 from a "bad Israel" of 1967, the approaches and limitations of human rights work, and his recent resignation from Human Rights Watch as a resu
"Now or never"
The brothers convene to discuss the US-Israeli attack on Iran, Israel's bombardment of Lebanon, the positions and alignments within Lebanon, Iran's objectives in the containing and responding to the attack, and the Israelis' sense that they are losing America and hence face a last chance opportunity to take advantage of American power to try to impose control over the region—a risky project of dom
"The war in Lebanon is existential" w/ Hala Jaber
The brothers are joined by the award-winning Lebanese investigative journalist Hala Jaber (@HalaJaber) to discuss the ongoing Israeli war on Lebanon in the context of the US-Israeli war on Iran, the timing of the unexpectedly strong re-emergence of Hizballah following 15 months of Israeli violations of the Nov 2024 ceasefire, the humanitarian catastrophe and displacement of hundreds of thousands f
"The Israelis are not interested in peace" w/ Jad Ghosn
***Note: This was recorded on the eve of Israel's expansion of its ongoing bombardment and destruction of Lebanon*** The brothers welcome the Lebanese investigative journalist Jad Ghosn to the show to discuss the internal tensions and crises in Lebanon on the eve of Israel's expansion of its ongoing destruction of the country. They discuss the Lebanese sectarian system dominated by oligarchs an
"Turning West Asia into a wasteland"" w/ Ali Alizadeh
The brothers welcome the London-based Iranian analyst and journalist Ali Alizadeh to the show to discuss the history and context of the US-Israeli attack on Iran, internal dynamics within post-revolution Iran, the background of and political framework of negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, and the scope and scale of damage being inflicted by US and Israeli forces on Iran as the current war a
"Everyone was bombing Yemen" w/ Farea Al Muslimi
**Note: This was recorded before the US-Israeli aggression on Iran** The brothers welcome Farea Al Muslimi, founder of Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies, research fellow at Chatham House in London, and analyst of Yemen and wider Gulf region. We discuss the implications of the new Yemeni government formation at a time of open Saudi-UAE conflict, contextualize this within the period since the Arab
"Trump isn't just President, he is a gangster and a businessman" w/ Jeremy Scahill
The brothers welcome the investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill of Drop Site News back to the show to discuss the looming threat of a joint US-Israeli attack on Iran, the various forces driving US foreign policy, the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and the capacity of Palestinian steadfastness to withstand either the plan for the dystopian reduction of Gaza to a wasteland of biometric concentration cam
"Justice or Annihilation" w/ Sharif Abdel Kouddous
The brothers welcome Drop Site News journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous to the show to discuss the latest developments in Gaza, as, despite a nominal "ceasefire," Israel's genocide grinds on, and as, meanwhile, dystopian plans to remake Gaza put forward by the likes of Jared Kushner are slowly put into place, which would see Palestinians forced into biometrically controlled concentration camps as par
"My disenchantment with Zionism was a very gradual process" w/ Avi Shlaim
A special edition of the Makdisi Street podcast in which Ussama interviews fellow historian Avi Shlaim in Jaipur, India where both were attending the Jaipur Literature Festival. Ussama asks Avi about his new book Genocide in Gaza, the history of coexistence devastated by the project of colonial Zionism, and about when and why Avi became an anti-Zionist. They discuss the importance of archives,
"Trump, Venezuela and an empire in crisis" w/ Greg Grandin
The brothers welcome Professor Greg Grandin to the show to discuss the US kidnapping of the Venezuelan president against the historical context of other American imperial interventions in Latin America, the recurring use of Latin America as a stage to reboot US interventions elsewhere around the world, different models of regime change, the collapse of international law and legitimacy and the spec
"We are not defeated" w/ Mustafa Barghouti
The brothers talk with the prominent Palestinian politician, activist and medical doctor Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, and presidential candidate during the last elections in Palestine in 2005. We discuss the awful realities of Palestinians living under Israeli genocide and attempted ethnic cleansing despite a "ceasefire," the essence of Palestinian s
From Jerusalem to Cairo and Beirut w/ Jean Said Makdisi
Special Christmas/New Year edition with the brothers' mother! The brothers welcome their mother, the author and educator Jean Said Makdisi, to the show, to discuss her books, her memories of growing up between Palestine and Egypt, living in America in the 1950s and 1960s and returning to Lebanon, where she raised her children through the 1975-1990 war while teaching at Beirut University College. S
[ARCHIVE] Christmas—and Christians—in Palestine w/ Dr. Mitri Raheb
***Producer's note: This is a repost of an episode we released two years ago. Wishing you a Merry Christmas from the Makdisi Street team! Thanks for your support! FREE PALESTINE*** The brothers welcome Dr. Mitri Raheb to the show to talk about the role and visibility of Christians in Palestine's ecumenical culture, so-called Christian Zionism, and how the Bible can be read either as a text author
"Pressuring schools to crack down" w/ Darryl Li
The brothers welcome Professor Darryl Li of the University of Chicago to the show to discuss the new AAUP/MESA report on federal "antisemitism" investigations on US college campuses, revealing the extent to which US civil rights laws have been distorted and weaponized to suppress the advocacy of Palestinian rights across the United States, to suppress American academic freedom in order to protect
"Anti-imperialism with solidarity at home" w/ Ali Abunimah
The brothers welcome Ali Abunimah of The Electronic Intifada to the show to discuss mainstream media distortion of Palestine and the rise of alternative media, shifting public opinions on Zionism and solidarity for Palestine in the West, the growing divide between ordinary people and political elites, and the shared sense that we are witnessing the terminal decline of Zionism in the West. Date of
"What did it take for so many Americans to not see" w/ Melani McAlister
**NOTE: The brothers are hosting a live Q&A on NOVEMBER 18 for patrons only. Please sign up today and drop your questions!** The brothers welcome Melani McAlister, professor of American Studies at George Washington University, author of the new book Promises, Then the Storm and scholar of American culture and evangelical culture. They discuss the meaning and nature of Christian Zionism, Melani
"Public opinion is vastly different than the elites" w/ Mandy Turner
The brothers welcome Mandy Turner, a senior researcher with Security in Context, to discuss the world of think tanks, how they operate as hegemony factories, and the divergence between public opinion and elites on the Gaza genocide Check out her article, "Hegemony factories or independent thinkers? Western think tanks on Israel and Palestine after October 7" Date of recording: Sept 16, 2025. W
"At the Threshold of Genocide"
The brothers discuss the "ceasefire" in Gaza, the Trump plan, and the potential contradictions between Israel and its partners and enablers. Date of recording: Oct 21, 2025. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Support the show on Patreon for access to all
"My fear is that this is a repackaging of the genocide" w/ Diana Buttu
**Producer's note: This episode was marred by technical problems and connection issues. Apologies for the sound quality** The brothers welcome the Canadian-Palestinian lawyer and former negotiator Diana Buttu (@dianabuttu) to the show to discuss the ceasefire in Gaza and the context of the Trump-branded "peace plan" for Gaza and its historical antecedents and possible outcomes. Date of recording
Return to Makdisi Street w/ Samir Makdisi
The brothers welcome their father, Samir Makdisi, Professor Emeritus at the American University of Beirut, to the show. They discuss the significance of Makdisi Street—the street itself!— in Beirut's cultural history, the social and political location of Ras Beirut in the larger context of Beirut and Lebanon itself, student movements in the 1950s and 1960s, the gradual consolidation of a sectaria
Bonus episode - To proxy or not to proxy?
***Producer's note: This is a preview of the latest bonus episode. Sign up on Patreon for as little as $5 a month to access this and other great bonus content.*** The brothers get together for a spirited debate on the age-old question: Is Israel a proxy of the US? Date of recording: Sept 9, 2025. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @
"A little more than nothing is better than nothing" w/ Michael Barenboim
The brothers welcome the prominent violinist, classical musician and Professor at the Barenboim-Said Akademie Michael Barenboim to have a heart-felt discussion about the relationship between classic music and dissent, his regret at not speaking out earlier in his life about Palestine, his horror at the ongoing Gaza genocide, and the implications of anti-Palestinian racism and repressive climate in
"This is the moment of accountability" w/ Michael Fakhri
The brothers welcome back to the show Michael Fakhri (@michaelfakhri), United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, to discuss the open war of starvation on Gaza, how international institutions have abjectly failed their moral and legal duties, the role of the media, and what individuals can do to hold the responsible actors to account. Check his episode from April 2024, "Famine is neve
"Is God Listening?" w/ Munther Isaac
The brothers welcome to the show the Palestinian theologian and pastor Munther Isaac to discuss Palestinian Christianity in the context of the depravity of the Gaza genocide, the theology of empire, the anti-Palestinian distortions in both so-called Christian Zionism and liberal Western Chrisian churches, the urgent need for rethinking the meaning of witness and the need for global intervention be
"Palestine is getting relegated to an impermissible viewpoint" w/Christine Hong and Theresa Montano
We welcome two brave California educators, Dr. Theresa Montano of Cal State Northridge and Dr. Christine Hong of UC Santa Cruz, who have been at the forefront of developing and advocating for a California Ethnic Studies Curriculum grounded in liberation and social justice rather than identity politics. We discuss how Ethnic Studies went from an insurgent field of knowledge in the 1960s to one adop
"A free press is supposed to challenge the government" w/ Assal Rad
The brothers welcome historian and headline fixer Assal Rad to discuss the mainstream media's role in manufacturing consent and perpetuating Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism, how it enables the Gaza genocide, how it accepts Israeli state propaganda as fact while rendering suspect Palestinian eyewitness accounts, and the differences between the coverage of Israel's genocide in Gaza from its
"The rot is very, very deep" w/ Ilan Pappé
The brothers welcome back historian Ilan Pappé to the show to discuss whether he still believes that the Gaza genocide marks "the beginning of the end of the Zionist project", his understanding of the nature of Israel's decline, the attacks on institutions of higher learning, and how Palestine has become the keystone for liberatory projects. Date of recording: July 8, 2025. Watch the video editio
Bonus Episode - Live at Socialism 2025
**Producer's Note: This is a preview of the latest bonus episode. You can listen to the entire episode by becoming a member of the Makdisi Street patreon, where you can also find all our other bonus content, including the latest Q&A** The brothers hosted a special live episode as part of the Socialism 2025 conference in Chicago. Date of recording: July 4, 2025. Watch the video edition on our YouT
"They don't see Arabs as human" w/ Alon Mizrahi
The brothers welcome the writer and podcaster Alon Mizrahi (@alon_mizrahi) to discuss the Israeli state's institutionalized and systematic dehumanization of Arabs and Palestinians, the racial hierarchy structuring and defining Israeli society, and the psychopathologies of colonial violence in such a racialized environment. Alon is the host of The Mizrahi Perspective on YouTube and can also be foun
"There was no attack by the Iranians" w/ Trita Parsi
**Producer's note: This was recorded before the US attack on Iranian nuclear facilities** The brothers welcome returning guest Trita Parsi to discuss the unprovoked and illegal attack on Iran, the potential role of the US in joining the Israeli regime's war, and what, if any, possibilities remain for negotiation or de-escalation. Date of recording: June 19, 2025. Watch the video edition on our
"They literally built a concentration camp on a football stadium" w/ Bassil Mikdadi
Ahead of the most important football match in the history of Palestine's national team, on the cusp of potential qualification for the 2026 World Cup, the brothers discuss with Bassil Mikdadi, Palestinian journalist and creator of footballpalestine.com, the impact of the ongoing Gaza genocide as well as the deeper context of Palestine national team's rich journey over many decades, its struggle to
"Israel is a dependent empire"
**Producer's note: The brothers are hosting their first livestream this coming TUESDAY (O6/03) at 10 am EST! It will be a Patreon-exclusive Q&A so only supporters of the show can submit questions or watch live. Sign up for as little as $5 a month and access all the great bonus content as well** The brothers explore the latest Gaza ceasefire negotiations, the abject failure of the corporate media t
"Israel is synonymous with the end of the rules-based order" w/ Noura Erakat
**Producer's note: The brothers are hosting their first livestream! It will be a Patreon-exclusive Q&A so only supporters of the show can submit questions or watch live. Sign up for as little as $5 a month and access all the great bonus content** The brothers welcome legal scholar Noura Erekat to the show to discuss how the Gaza genocide has threatened to end the "rules-based international order;"
"Zionism is an anachronism"
The brothers discuss the extent to which Trump represents a possible shift in US policy in the Middle East, contrasting the possibility of new deal-making in the Gulf region and elsewhere (Iran, Syria) with the retrograde pull of Zionist pressure to extend the genocide in Gaza and derail the drive towards profit-driven capitalist stabilization in the region. Watch the video edition on our YouTube
"We were conscripted into the Zionist project" w/ Avi Shlaim
The brothers welcome preeminent British Israeli historian Avi Shlaim to the show to discuss the richness of Arab Jewish identity, and how the ideology of Zionism is based on the negation and denial of this identity and coexistence, his own family's migration from Iraq to newly-created Israeli state, the reception they received there, and the wider story of Jewish minorities in Iraq and other Arab
"Law as a cudgel that you deploy selectively" w/ Sarah Leah Whitson
The brothers welcome Sarah Leah Whitson, the Executive Director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) and former director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch, to discuss the role of human rights advocacy amidst the ongoing genocide, the initiative to hold Blinken, Biden, and Lloyd Austin legally accountable, the failure of the ICC, and how Gaza has proven to
"The Israeli disposition is to maximize what it can get" w/ Daniel Levy
The brothers welcome Daniel Levy, president of the US Middle East Project (USMEP) and former negotiator, to discuss how Israelis employ negotiations to pursue their political goals of expansionism, the role of the US as a supposed third-party guarantor, and the growing internal political chaos threatening the Israeli political status quo. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Date of re
"An even worse collaboration than the one before" w/ Abdaljawad Omar
The brothers welcome Palestinian analyst and researcher Abdaljawad Omar (@hhamayel2) to the show to discuss the nature of the Palestinian Authority's collaborative dealings with the Israeli occupation, how it compares against other examples of collaboration historically, how supporters of the PA regime view their role through the prism of national liberation, and why Palestinians in the West Bank
"We refuse to change our Syrian identity" w/ Wael Tarbieh
The brothers welcome artist and activist Wael Tarbieh from the occupied Golan Heights to discuss the Israeli colonization of the region since 1967, the mixed ethnic and confessional makeup of the Indigenous population, and their decades-long steadfastness in retaining their political and legal identity. For more information on the ethnic cleansing of the Golan, check out Al Marsad https://golan-ma
"Palestinians have the right to reject surveillance" w/ Hadeel Assali
The brothers welcome Palestinian anthropologist (and former chemical engineer) Hadeel Assali. They discuss the kidnapping of Mahmoud Khalil, the history of tunnels and the ecology of Gaza, the ontological relationship of the Palestinians to their indigenous environment that the US-backed Zionist colonizers seek to destroy, the different forms of resistance to incessant colonial surveillance, the s
"Nobody wants to name the traumatizer" w/ Lara Sheehi
The brothers welcome psychoanalytic scholar, professor and licensed clinical psychologist Lara Sheehi to discuss the historic role of psychoanalysis in national liberation struggles, the connection between the revolutionary work of Franz Fanon and the Palestinian resistance, and how liberal educational institutions are facilitating fascist attacks on oppositional voices. Watch the episode on our
"The West Bank is being annexed" w/ Mariam Barghouti
The brothers welcome Ramallah-based journalist Mariam Barghouti (@MariamBarghouti) to discuss the ongoing de facto annexation of the West Bank, the unchecked growth of colonial outposts, the role of the mainstream Western media in whitewashing and censoring this violence, and the position of the Palestinian Authority as a subcontractor to the Israeli occupation. Watch the episode on our YouTube ch
"Every single one of us has a role to play" w/ Mohammed el-Kurd
The brothers welcome journalist and writer Mohammed el-Kurd to the show to discuss his new book, Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal (2025), his family's surreal experiences with Jewish Israeli settlers in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, the role of resistance in the broader meaning of the term, and why Palestinians can never surrender to the "politics of appeal." Watch the epi
"The minimum we owe is solidarity" w/ Asli Bâli
The brothers welcome Aslı Bâli, Professor of Law at Yale Law School and President of the Middle East Studies Association. They discuss the increasingly repressive academic climate in the United States over the question of Palestine led by private sector as well as the current Trump Administration, how anti-Palestinian racism is used as a wedge issue in contemporary culture wars, how Zionist and ri
"They still think we are 'savages'" w/ Wadie Said
The brothers welcome their cousin Wadie Said, Professor of Law at the University of Colorado, to reflect on Donald Trump's personalized domestic and Middle East agenda, the Gaza ceasefire deal and the demise of international legal order. The conversation then focuses on insidious concepts of "terrorism" in the US, and its legal implications for those accused on trumped up charges as well its weapo
"You can't hide the smoking gun of this genocide" w/ Sherene Seikaly and Tony Alessandrini
Note: we recorded this before the appalling AHA leadership veto on Jan. 17 of the democratic vote of its membership to condemn Israeli scholasticide The brothers welcome Professor Sherene Seikaly, historian at University of California at Santa Barbara and editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies and Anthony Alessandrini, Professor of English at Kingsborough Community College and of Middle Easte
"Both the US and Israel are delusional" w/ Jeffrey Sachs
The brothers welcome the world-renowned economics professor and bestselling author, and Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs of Columbia University. They discuss the nature of U.S. global hegemony, idealism vs. realism, the possibility of de-dollarization, BRICS, the delusional notions of perpetual US and Israel hegemony, and why their killing lots of civilians does not translate into political victory, the
"The lobby is working overtime" w/ John Mearsheimer
The brothers welcome University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer to the show to discuss the power of the Israel lobby in the US, the relationship between the US and the Israeli state (and whether the dog wags the tail or the other way around), the possibility of change in US policy on Palestine and the Arab world, recent developments in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, and, finally, how transfor
"No one has a national interest in a unilateral declaration of Syria's future" w/ Omar S. Dahi
The brothers welcome Syrian political economist and Hampshire College professor Omar S. Dahi (@omardahi) to offer personal reflections on the early days of the post-Assad era in Syria, who exactly Ahmad Shara/ Al Jolani is, Syrian policy choices and national interests in the context of external interventions and Turkish influence, and the implications of Israeli expansionism and destruction of Syr
"The problem has always been that Israel is above the law" w/ Nimer Sultany
The brothers welcome Nimer Sultany, a Reader in Public Law at SOAS University of London. They discuss the difference between the hypocrisy of the Western liberal legal order versus the Western liberal abandonment of its own international order to protect Israel, the imperatives of justice in Syria at a time of injustice in Palestine, the ICC and ICJ cases, the fact that South Africa stopped appeal
"Palestine will be liberated in Arabic" w/ Fady Joudah
The brothers welcome National Book Award for Poetry Finalist Fady Joudah (@fadyjoudah) for a searing and intimate discussion of Palestine in English versus Palestine in Arabic, about writing poetry in a time of genocide, about the limits and hubris of solidarity, about the necessity of common decency in the face of horror, and about the meaning of Palestinian love confronting the Israeli inferno o
"The beautiful thing about the truth is that it's easy" w/ Ta-Nehisi Coates
Ta-Nehisi Coates joins the brothers for a wide-ranging discussion drawing on his new book, The Message (2024), and covering the parallels and differences between the Black American and Palestinian experiences, the culture of denial suppressing the realities of the system of apartheid in Palestine, the challenges of gaining access to Palestinian voices, the power of conveying the raw reality of Pal
"The first foothold in a much broader liberation" w/ Tareq Baconi
The brothers welcome analyst Tareq Baconi, author of Hamas Contained (Stanford University Press, 2018) and president of the board of Al-Shabaka. One year into the Gaza genocide, they discuss the emergence Hamas and its role in the Palestinian political polity, its sweeping electoral victory in Gaza in 2006 as well as its subsequent governance in Gaza and attempts to contain its growth through bloc
"The other guy is more genocidal" w/ Mehdi Hasan
The Brothers welcome journalist and founder of Zeteo, Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) to the pod. They have a spirited discussion about anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias in the mainstream media, the price of compromise to gain access, and whether voting for Harris is a vote against fascism or a vote endorsing genocide. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Oct 22, 2024. Follow us on
"Code 31: Arab Americans and the zone of danger" w/ Maya Berry
Maya Berry (@imayaberry), Executive Director of the Arab American Institute, joins the brothers for a wide-ranging conversation covering anti-Arab racism in the United States, hate crime tracking, the location of Arab Americans in the US racial lexicon, and the impossible position Arab Americans find themselves in the build-up to the 2024 presidential election. Watch the episode on our YouTube cha
"One of my recurring fears is that people will move on" w/ Laila Al-Arian
The brothers welcome Laila al-Arian, executive producer for the Al Jazeera English documentary series Fault Lines. They discuss the anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim orthodoxies of the mainstream Western media, the coverage of the genocide in Gaza, the dissenting spaces opened up by critical alternative and social media, and Laila's harrowing documentary The Night Won't End that tracks t
"The most immoral and unethical army in the world" w/ Elijah Magnier
The brothers welcome the war correspondent Elijah Magnier (@ejmalrai) to the show to discuss the expansion of Israel's war on civilians to Lebanon, as well as the tactical and strategic challenges and opportunities in confronting it on the ground and the implications of Iran's direct intervention in what is already a regional war. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Oct 4,
"President Biden is negotiating with himself" w/ Trita Parsi
The brothers welcome Trita Parsi (@tparsi), co-founder and Executive Vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, to discuss the three-way relationship between the US, Israel, and Iran, the pathetic state of US diplomacy, the role of the Zionist lobby in defining US interests, and the consequences of any potential Iranian military intervention. Watch the episode on our YouTub
"They want people to routinize the massacre of Palestinians"
The brothers discuss the latest developments from the Gaza genocide, the murder of American citizen Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi followed by the wholesale media silence around it, and to what degree the US is calling the shots over the looming regional war. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Sept 11, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Ma
"A society built on the ashes of another will always be violent" w/ Yara Hawari
The brothers welcome Yara Hawari (@yarahawari), Co-director of Al-Shabaka, to discuss how the Oslo Accords transformed Palestinian civic life, the emergence of the PA from the PLO, the significance of the increasing number of political and social ruptures among Zionist settlers, and what role the Global South can play in the movement to liberate Palestine. This episode is co-published with Al-Shab
"Many of us can't think about anything but Palestine" w/ Tariq Ali
The brothers welcome distinguished writer, novelist, and intellectual of the New Left Review Tariq Ali to Makdisi Street. They discuss the similarities and differences between the anti-Vietnam war demonstrations of the 1960s and 1970s and contemporary demonstrations against the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza; the role of the U.S. empire and global capitalism as a bitter opponent of popular liber
"Calm before the storm"
The brothers gather in the garden of their family home in the mountains of Lebanon to discuss recent Israeli escalations and the possible consequences from Lebanon, Iran and elsewhere, following the Israeli bombings in Beirut and Tehran; the focus of the discussion is the fact that, despite inflicting massive and irreparable trauma on civilian life in Gaza, the Israelis have been sinking deeper an
"Camp David is a primordial document for the Egyptian political apparatus" w/ Lina Attalah
The brothers welcome journalist Lina Attalah (@linaattalah), the co-founder and chief editor of MadaMasr, an independent online Egyptian newspaper. They discuss the current situation in Egypt, political despotism and the war on normal politics, media censorship, the question of Camp David and why the political and military elite are so wedded to it, the nature of Egyptian sovereignty in Sinai
"Partition was about creating a settler colonial state" w/ Abdel Razzaq Takriti (pt.2)
The second half of the conversation between the brothers and historian Abdel Razzaq Takriti (@abedtakriti). In this part, they do a deep dive into the Oslo negotiations, the effect of the Camp David Agreement, Yasser Arafat's leadership of the PLO, and why he signed the Oslo Accords. They also discuss the rise of Hamas and its significance within Palestinian politics and the long history of resist
(Preview) "98% of the UN has been condemning what Israel has done."
[Producer's note: This is a preview of the latest bonus episode of Makdisi Street. You can listen to the entire episode by subscribing to the Patreon for as low as $5 a month and get access to other great bonus content. Since we want to make as much content accessible as possible, we have unlocked this for the YouTube channel.] The Brothers discuss the deceptive conflation of antizionism with anti
"Partition was about creating a settler colonial state" w/ Abdel Razzaq Takriti (pt.1)
The brothers welcome historian Abdel Razzaq Takriti (@abedtakriti), the author of Monsoon Revolution: Republicans, Sultans, and Empires in Oman 1965-1976 (2016), "Before BDS: Lineages of Boycott in Palestine," and co-creator of Thawra, a @thedigradio series on modern Arab and Palestinian revolutionary history. They take a deep dive into the history of Palestinian resistance in the 20th century, e
"Universities are complicit in Palestinian unfreedom" w/ Maya Wind
The brothers welcome Maya Wind, the author of Towers of Ivory and Steel, a searing critique of the Israeli academic establishment's complicity in the regime of apartheid and genocide. They discuss the role played by Israeli universities in the establishment and maintenance of the Zionist project in Palestine, the nexus between universities and political repression and military violence, the appal
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