"Their appetite grows with every war" w/ Aslı Ü. Bâli
Makdisi Street
The brothers welcome back , 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 to the US and the Middle East of the decades-long American political embrace of an Israel drunk on borrowed power and impunity, Turkey’s role in the regional realignment, the question of pipelines and...
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"FIFA is a racket" w/ Abdullah Al-Arian
Makdisi Street
With the 2026 World Cup having started in the USA, the brothers welcome , 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 of the World Cup, including the journey of Team Palestine during a genocide, and discrimination against Iran’s team and fans from across the global south. We wrap by discussing the question of FIFA...
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Makdisi Street Reviews w/ Eyal Weizman
Makdisi Street
In anticipation of the publication of Eyal Weizman's new book, , 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 Date of recording: June 16, 2026 Follow us on our socials: X: YouTube: Insta: TikTok: Consider supporting the show
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"We should not become our own worst enemy"
Makdisi Street
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 Watch the on our YouTube channel Date of recording: June 8, 2026 Follow us on our socials: X: YouTube: Insta: TikTok: Consider supporting the show for access to the
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"Every war ends at the negotiating table" w/ Trita Parsi
Makdisi Street
The brothers welcome 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 Substack Watch the on our YouTube channel Date of recording: June 4, 2026 Follow us on our socials: X: YouTube: Insta: TikTok: Sign up at to access all...
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"Only proper deterrence works"
Makdisi Street
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 on our YouTube channel Date of recording: May 28, 2026 Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet YouTube: @Makdisistreet Sign up at to access all the bonus content, including the latest brothers-only conversation.
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"No peace and prosperity with apartheid" w/ As`ad Abukhalil
Makdisi Street
The brothers welcome Lebanese scholar and original “Angry Arab” 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 the decades of alleged Lebanese prosperity in the run up to the civil war, the origins of the Dahiye, why the current Lebanese government has turned its back on resistance, and the extent to which Lebanese...
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"The Zionist project is what it has always been" w/ Jehad Abusalim
Makdisi Street
The brothers welcome to the show , 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 longer being covered in Western media), the conditions for yet again displaced Palestinians living in the aftermath of Israel’s destruction of Gaza and in the deliberate limbo covered up by Trump’s...
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"We cannot negotiate without national consensus” w/ Michael Young
Makdisi Street
The brothers welcome to the show , 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: April 28, 2026 Watch the on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: YouTube: Insta: TikTok: Sign up at to access all the bonus content,
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“It hasn’t worked”: Lebanese defiance of Zionist oppression w/ Karim, Ussama and Saree Makdisi
Makdisi Street
**Producer's note: This is a special co-published episode with , hosted by Makdisi Street guest 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 US and Zionist interventionism in Lebanon, their attempt to foment sectarian hate and violence, internalized Arabophobia (and other potential explanations) and, importantly, how we believe they have not succeeded in...
info_outlineThe 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 the decades of alleged Lebanese prosperity in the run up to the civil war, the origins of the Dahiye, why the current Lebanese government has turned its back on resistance, and the extent to which Lebanese leaders and politicians have collaborated with Israel since 1948, the difference between the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and today, the price of, and discontent with resistance, and the anti-Shii bigotry of Lebanese political culture.
Date of recording: May 13, 2026
Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel
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Music by Hadiiiiii
Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest brothers-only conversation.