Makdisi Street

**Producer's note: The brothers are hosting their first livestream! It will be a Patreon-exclusive Q&A [https://www.patreon.com/posts/130108472?pr=true] 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;” the failure of international legal institutions to take meaningful action to stop the genocide; the collapse of Israel’s standing and reputation in Western societies; and how to retain "infallible optimism" despite the most disturbing assessments of the status quo. Watch the video edition [https://youtu.be/2k2qMAvow74] on our YouTube channel Date of recording: May 20, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet [https://twitter.com/MakdisiStreet] YouTube: @MakdisiStreet [https://www.youtube.com/@MakdisiStreet] Insta: @Makdisist [https://www.instagram.com/makdisist/] TikTok: @Makdisistreet [https://www.tiktok.com/@makdisistreet] Music by [https://soundcloud.com/hadi-aleid-581764119/abdel-halim-hafez-el-toba-remix-hadi-aleid] Hadiiiiii [https://soundcloud.com/hadi-aleid-581764119] Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet [https://patreon.com/MakdisiStreet] to access all the bonus content, including the latest one [https://www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-episode-on-126163394]

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 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOK06tX_14M&ab_channel=MakdisiStreet] on our YouTube channel Date of recording: May 15, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet [https://twitter.com/MakdisiStreet] YouTube: @MakdisiStreet [https://www.youtube.com/@MakdisiStreet] Insta: @Makdisist [https://www.instagram.com/makdisist/] TikTok: @Makdisistreet [https://www.tiktok.com/@makdisistreet] Music by [https://soundcloud.com/hadi-aleid-581764119/abdel-halim-hafez-el-toba-remix-hadi-aleid] Hadiiiiii [https://soundcloud.com/hadi-aleid-581764119] *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet [https://patreon.com/MakdisiStreet] to access all the bonus content, including the latest one [https://www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-episode-on-126163394]*

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 countries. Shlaim discusses the role Mossad played in the uprooting of Baghdad’s historic Jewish community in the early 1950s and what he sees as the undeniable signs of the implosion from within Zionism. Watch the video edition [https://youtu.be/TMqJQE9yoe0] on our YouTube channel Date of recording: April 15, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet [https://twitter.com/MakdisiStreet] YouTube: @MakdisiStreet [https://www.youtube.com/@MakdisiStreet] Insta: @Makdisist [https://www.instagram.com/makdisist/] TikTok: @Makdisistreet [https://www.tiktok.com/@makdisistreet] Music by [https://soundcloud.com/hadi-aleid-581764119/abdel-halim-hafez-el-toba-remix-hadi-aleid] Hadiiiiii [https://soundcloud.com/hadi-aleid-581764119] *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet [https://patreon.com/MakdisiStreet] to access all the bonus content, including the latest one [https://www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-episode-on-126163394]*

The brothers welcome Sarah Leah Whitson [https://dawnmena.org/experts/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 [https://dawnmena.org/international-criminal-court-investigate-biden-blinken-and-austin-for-aiding-and-abetting-israeli-crimes-in-gaza/] to hold Blinken, Biden, and Lloyd Austin legally accountable,  the failure of the ICC, and how Gaza has proven to be the "graveyard" of the "rules-based order." Watch the video edition [https://youtu.be/9k0U5kV_MQI] on our YouTube channel Date of recording: April 8, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet [https://twitter.com/MakdisiStreet] YouTube: @MakdisiStreet [https://www.youtube.com/@MakdisiStreet] Insta: @Makdisist [https://www.instagram.com/makdisist/] TikTok: @Makdisistreet [https://www.tiktok.com/@makdisistreet] Music by [https://soundcloud.com/hadi-aleid-581764119/abdel-halim-hafez-el-toba-remix-hadi-aleid] Hadiiiiii [https://soundcloud.com/hadi-aleid-581764119] *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet [https://patreon.com/MakdisiStreet] to access all the bonus content, including the latest one [https://www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-episode-on-126163394]*

The brothers welcome Daniel Levy, president of the US Middle East Project (USMEP) [https://www.usmep.us/] 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 [https://youtu.be/VcHZ_qHU7Fk] on our YouTube channel Date of recording: April 7, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet [https://twitter.com/MakdisiStreet] YouTube: @MakdisiStreet [https://www.youtube.com/@MakdisiStreet] Insta: @Makdisist [https://www.instagram.com/makdisist/] TikTok: @Makdisistreet [https://www.tiktok.com/@makdisistreet] Music by [https://soundcloud.com/hadi-aleid-581764119/abdel-halim-hafez-el-toba-remix-hadi-aleid] Hadiiiiii [https://soundcloud.com/hadi-aleid-581764119] *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet [https://patreon.com/MakdisiStreet] to access all the bonus content, including the latest one [https://www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-episode-on-126163394]*