UofT students: I'm offering a Black Radical Theory from the Global South class, JAA 377H on Tuesdays. We'll be reading folks like Neville Alexander, Keguro Macharia, Beatriz Nascimento, Grace Musila, Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Wangui Kimari etc...

ISR PM Netanyahu is driving a new form of militarization of Israeli politics and society is underway that is most reminiscent of how dictator Hafez al-Assad built authoritarian rule in Syria. From my recent post: "Netanyahu takes a leaf from Hafez Assad’s playbook"

These haunting words could have been written today in the US but, in fact, this excerpt is from Anne Frank’s diary, written on January 13, 1943, now plastered on a wall in Pittsburgh and shared by @/@pittsburghgraffiti

Just as speaking the truth about the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, speaking up against ICE disappearing people in the US is an act of moral obligation. May we strengthen our resolve to defend life, dignity, and freedom wherever they are threatened.

Rabbi Heschel wrote on the holy necessity of speaking the truth at any cost: “Above all, the prophets remind us of the moral state of a people: Few are guilty, but all are responsible.”

More on Mustafa's legacy www.jerusalemstory.com/en/bio/musta...

Palestine Solidarity Campaign have done an impressive job over the past two years in mobilizing for Gaza and for the basic right of Palestinians to freedom. Please join me in helping to sustain this work by donating: donate.palestinecampaign.org/donate_winte... and follow @pscupdates.bsky.social

‘Netanyahu could talk himself out of any fix. Not for nothing has hasbara or good-news publicity on behalf of Israel been seen as his special, perhaps only, political gift.’ Jacqueline Rose on meeting Benjamin Netanyahu: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Annemarie Jacir’s sweeping epic of the 1936 Arab Revolt is an Oscar hopeful in 2026. Lori Allen’s review highlights how the film makes visceral the personal and political impact of colonialism.

‘Perhaps one in ten West Papuans has been a refugee in the last five years. By clearing Indigenous people from their land, the TNI both eases the extraction process and seeds future conflict: displacement allows extraction which leads to further displacement.’ www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...

Qatari adviser Majed al-Ansari: “We are living in an age of disgusting impunity that is taking us back hundreds of years." www.theguardian.com/law/ng-inter... Into the void: how Trump killed international law

‘The value of the world’s top ten companies is $25.6 trillion. Of that, $15.1 trillion has accumulated since 30 November 2022 and is directly linked to the AI boom.’ John Lanchester on the AI bubble. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Read thus whole thread. Vital for the defence of democracy, citizens rights, and basic human decency

Jordan medics gave baby's family 12 cans of hypoallergenic Neocate formula for their return to Gaza. Israeli officials confiscated 9 cans and stripped them of their clothes down to one outfit for "security considerations." This is the banality of evil www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Support today! friendsofpalunis.org

It's finally here! Remember that weird group of Emirati influencers you keep seeing online. Well I've done a VERY deep dive, & the story is even weirder than you can imagine! "Amjad Taha, Muslim Brotherhood Maxxing & the Emirati #Dysinfluencer Factory" open.substack.com/pub/marcowen...

Sisi threatens military intervention in Sudan if Egypt's "red lines" are breached. But can he follow through, since this means opposing the UAE, which is his main financial linchpin? Sisi’s impossible choices in Sudan open.substack.com/pub/sayighye...

Help keep Palestinian network al-Shabaka continue as a critical voice and platform for debate:

UN’s IPC: Gaza out of Famine for Now, but Severe Malnutrition Continues, as Newborn dies of Hypthermia

A lovely review by @loriall.bsky.social of the well-judged and wholly viewable portrayal of the beginnings of the Great Revolt of 1936-1939 in Palestine, by film director Anne-Marie Jacir. NEW: Palestine 36 and the Hard Facts of History www.merip.org/p/d587439f-a...

"However accidental its historical genesis, Jordan has become a crucible of knowledge about how power and geopolitics operate in the region." @seanyom.bsky.social in Hidden Cities on how tiny Jordan helps explain the entire Middle East: www.hidden-cities.com/p/why-tiny-j...

‘My university resumed online classes in mid‑2024, but I missed the classrooms, the cafeteria where I would get mint tea, the friends to chat or study with. All I had were a few pre‑recorded lectures.’ Hassan Ayman Herzallah on the lives on hold in Gaza, from the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...

I support Orient XXI multilingual newsletter and hope you will do the same: orientxxi.info/Derniere-lig...

I've started my own Substack! Brief weekly comments on Middle East political & conflict trends. My first post argues that a new form of militarization is driving authoritarian transformation in Israel: Netanyahu takes a leaf from Hafez Assad’s playbook open.substack.com/pub/sayighye...

Benjamin Netanyahu’s Lethal Legacy: Revisionism, Neoconservatism, big Money and Corruption

Gifting this song by British artists to your children or grandchildren costs a mere £4 to help frontline aid organizations in Gaza while boosting awareness TOGETHER FOR PALESTINE: LULLABY - THE NEW SINGLE togetherforpalestine.org

The Muslim Brotherhood still isn’t a terrorist organization. Designating it now has more to do with Trump’s toxic domestic agenda, appeasing rhe radical far right, and paying off regional allies than with truth or actual Middle East interests. New by me. foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/10/t...

NEW: Mongolia produces some of the world’s finest cashmere — and is being undone by it. As brands market “sustainable” fiber, herders face debt, dying pastures and a collapsing steppe, write Aïda Delpuech, Sara Manisera and Daniela Sala for @newlinesmag.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/reportage/su...

Actually a big deal for Syria’s economy. www.thenationalnews.com/business/eco...

Clear-eyed assessment of the damage Germany's leaders do to EU foreign policy influence, and of measures the EU should adopt for dealing with Netanyahu & his far-right government Staatsräson: How Germany’s Israel policy hobbles EU strategy: ecfr.eu/article/staa...

NEW: To understand the challenges facing the “new” Syria, it's helpful to look back at three previous beginnings: the fall of the Ottoman Empire, independence in 1946 and the birth of Hafez al-Assad’s regime. Yassin al-Haj Saleh traces the history newlinesmag.com/essays/the-u...

An Egyptian Air Force agency claims impressive results in cultivating reclaimed desert land, reducing food imports & generating export revenue, making it Sisi's new poster child. I assess the achievements and possible hidden costs of "Egypt's Future": carnegieendowment.org/middle-east/...

Vanishing Future? The Arab World Faces 2x Global Heating, Corruption and High Tech Divide www.juancole.com/2025/11/vani...

Meet Fadi and Jumaa Tamer Abu Asi, two brothers ages 8 and 10 who crossed Israel's "yellow line" as they gathered firewood for their injured father in Bani Suheila, Khan Younis. Israel deemed these children a "threat" and killed them in a drone attack. Is this the ceasefire of which we speak?

The DC shooting story is really getting to me because we literally trained this man as a child soldier for a death squad in a forever war and Stephen Miller et al want to blame it on other cultures? It's our culture, American culture, that killed that woman.

“Unifil, the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon that operates south of the Litani, says Israel has committed more than 10,000 air and ground violations during the ceasefire.” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Timely and hard-nosed analysis from Aluf Benn on the current state of Israeli politics: How Netanyahu Survives www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/how-n...

A wonderful historical resource on the Palestinian national liberation movement, seen through a UK-based magazine that appeared 1968-1984: “Free Palestine: British-based Solidarities with the Palestinian Revolution”, revolutionarypapers.org/teaching-too...

Very interesting insight from my colleague @ksadjadpour.bsky.social, and convincing assessment of the most likely post-Khamenei scenarios for Iran: carnegieendowment.org/middle-east/...

As horrific as the death and devastation in Gaza have been, the Israeli state's drive to annex and depopulate the West Bank, spearheaded by Jewish supremacist settlers and the army, promises its own particular kind of horror: www.hrw.org/report/2025/...

“In American cinema, as in American life, the siren song of anti-politics is sounding.” @MonicaMarks.bsky.social reflects on recent films depicting a future U.S. defined by vigilantism, insurgencies and violence, for @newlinesmag.bsky.social

I discussed the cases of Egypt and Syria in this panel, along with Hamza Meddeb on Tunisia and Idriss Hadj Nacer on Algeria, moderated by Nur Arafeh: New Regimes, Old Habits: The Reconfiguration of Crony Capitalism in the MENA Region m.youtube.com/watch?v=iijS...

Interesting take. Key takeaway: keep pushing! www.chathamhouse.org/2025/11/gaza...

Sky News' Data and Forensics team research proved that the X's algorithm amplifies right-wing and extreme content.

@dropsitenews.com's @mazmhussain.bsky.social and @ryangrim.bsky.social piece together how Jeffrey Epstein helped facilitate Israel-Cote d'Ivoire security tie-up: www.dropsitenews.com/p/jeffrey-ep...

I've worked on this for decades, as an activist, negotiator, & analyst, really appreciate the approach & substantive ideas offered by @omerman.bsky.social and @sarahleah1.bsky.social in this interview with Jonathan Adler about their recent book: www.972mag.com/from-aparthe...

Darryl Li, professor and legal scholar at University of Chicago on US government investigations into universities over antisemitism allegations: “Government civil rights enforcement is now being driven by the equivalent of a YouTube comment section.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

And here is the other thoughtful deep dive by my colleague Nathan Brown, this time into the predicament of Palestinian politics and talk of reform, along with thoughts on key challenges and paths to follow going forward: carnegieendowment.org/research/202...