Having not posted links since last August (it’s been a very busy few months), I am now resuming more regular linking. Look for them once a week or so - in the batch below, the more recent ones are on top, the rest may date back several weeks or even months.

• “Let it Spoil!”: Morocco’s Boycott and the Empowerment of ‘Regular’ Citizen | MIPA
  Mohammed Masbah.

• Iraq’s Post-ISIS Campaign of Revenge | New Yorker
  Fantastic piece by Ben Taub.

• Fake Justice: The Responsibility Israel’s High Court Justices Bear for the Demolition of Palestinian Homes and the Dispossession of Palestinians | B'tselem

• Finer points of murder | TLS
  Tom Stevenson on the recent history of political assassination

• Improving Prospects for a Peaceful Transition in Sudan | Crisis Group
  On the anti-Bashir protests.

• The View from Moscow | Diwan
  Michael Young interviews Dmitri Trenin on Russian policy in the Middle East.

• Rapping with Fanon | NYR Daily
  Adam Shatz on Frantz Fanon and Rocé's new album "Par les damné.e.s de la terre".

• Business as Usual in Western Sahara? | MERIP
  Jacob Mundy and Alice Wilson.

• Constitutional amendments submitted to Parliament could allow Sisi to stay in power until 2034 | Mada Masr
  Mada's reporting has been excellent on this.

• Report – Fighting Corruption or Protecting the Regime? Egypt's Administrative Control Authority | POMED
  Jessical Noll.

• Censored Israel lobby film starts leaking | The Electronic Intifada
  Asa Winstanley, on al-Jazeera's unreleased undercover documentary "The Lobby".

• Tracking the Trends of the Palestinian Cause Since 1967 | al-Shabaka
  Nadia Hijab and Mouin Rabbani.

• Marie Colvin — the making of a myth | FT
  Lindsey Hilsum.

• Crazy-rich Iranians face blowback at a time of sanctions and economic stress | WaPo
  Erin Cunningham.

• How the Left Should Respond to Ethnic Cleansing in China | The Nation
  Daniel Bessner and Isaac Stone Fish, on the Uighur tragedy.

• How the Private Sector Supports Authoritarians in the Arab World | LobeLog
  Charles W. Dunne.

• On the Need to Shape the Arab Exile Body in Berlin
  Amro Ali.

• Fool Britannia
  Review of Fintan O’Toole's "Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain."

• Thieves of Experience: How Google and Facebook Corrupted Capitalism
  Review of Shoshana Zuboff's "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism".

• Lessons of Defeat: Testimonies of the Arab left
  Ursula Lindsey in @the_point_mag on the work of Arwa Salih and Mustafa Khalifa

• Exhibition Revisits a Revolution Whose Legacy Is Still Uncertain
  Ursula Lindsey on an exhibition at the Bardo in Tunis

• Time to Break the Silence on Palestine | NYT
  Great to see NYT columnist Michelle Barber speak out on Palestine on MLK Day.

• Rahaf al-Qunun: 'I hope my story encourages other women to be brave and free' | World news | The Guardian

• رواق عربي | ROWAQ ARABI
  New website by Cairo Center for Human Rights Studies.

• Why Is Casablanca’s Les Abattoirs Warehouse Now Empty? - CityLab
  One of the most promising cultural spaces in Morocco languishes in a limbo

• Islam as statecraft: How governments use religion in foreign policy
  Report by Peter Mandaville and Shadi Hamid

• Egypt lawyer files case to change president’s 2-term limit
  And so it begins...

• ‘A Search for Band-Aids’: Economic Reform in Egypt
  @ursulind on a new book from @aucpress

• Is Literary Glory Worth Chasing? | NYR Daily
  Delightful text unearthed by Tim Parks.

• Congress and Saudi Arabia | LobeLog

• Exclusive: After Khashoggi murder, some Saudi royals turn against king’s favorite son

• Egypt creates new human rights watchdog - to protect itself | AP

• Who’s buying Israeli gas? A company owned by the General Intelligence Service
  Hossam Bahgat traces a network of private companies back up to the GIS, set to cash in from the deal

• Restoring Morocco’s Past | by Ursula Lindsey | The New York Review of Books
  Excellent piece by @ursulind on a nearly forgotten and truly original Moroccan film-maker and writer, Ahmed Bouanani

• Consulting Firms Keep Lucrative Saudi Alliance, Shaping Crown Prince’s Vision - The New York Times
  McKinsey, BCG, Booz Allen Hamilton involved in repression.

• Turkey Believes Prominent Saudi Critic Was Killed in Saudi Consulate in Istanbul - NYYT
  “They confirmed two things: He was killed and his body was dismembered.”

• Young, Educated, Desperate to Emigrate
  Ursula Lindsey on a new wave of frustration and migration from Morocco

• States can’t punish businesses for boycotting Israel, federal judge in Arizona says
  Great work by the ACLU.

• Can Plan B Save Libya? Here Are the Obstacles it Must Overcome
  Emadeddin Muntasser And Mohamed Fouad.

• America Needs an Entirely New Foreign Policy for the Trump Age | The Atlantic
  Peter Beinart.

• The Return to Great-Power Rivalry Was Inevitable | The Atlantic
  Thomas Wright

• Oman’s Port Strategy
  Giorgio Cafiero on the fascinating geopolitics of shipping.

• Building Fortress Europe | Cairo Review
  Parastou Hastouri on Europe's migration policies.

• The sea is the same sea | LRB
  Adam Shatz reviews Anshel Pfeffer's Bibiography

• Egypt detains former diplomat and six others after call for referendum on Sisi | MEE

• Saudi Aramco Is Said to Postpone Its Potentially Record-Breaking I. P.O. | NYT
  While it acquires SABIC.

• The Garment of Terrorism | LRB
  Azadeh Moaveni reviews books on the niqab

• All Shook Up | Carnegie
  Intissar Fakir on the boycott campaign in Morocco

• God or Man in Tunisia? | Carnegie
  Zeineb Ben Yahmed on Tunisia's COLIBE report on individual freedoms.

• Tunisie. L’égalité devant l’héritage contestée | Orient XXI
  Thierry Bresillon on Tunisia's proposed inheritance reform.

• After Deadly Raid, Pentagon Weighs Withdrawing Almost All Commandos From Niger | NYT
  And Tunisia, Cameroon, Libya and Kenya.

• Morocco’s Religious “Soft Power” in Africa: As a strategy supporting Morocco’s stretching in Africa

• Algérie : la gouvernance aux temps du choléra
  Adlene Meddi on public health and mistrust of the state

Now that the summer holidays are over, time to get rid of the backlog of links for the last few weeks:

• Uri Avnery, veteran peace activist and among first Israelis to meet Arafat, dies at 94 - Haaretz
• One Million Muslim Uighurs Have Been Detained by China, the U.N. Says. Where’s the Global Outrage? | The Intercept
• Les fantômes de Raba’a planent sur l’Egypte | Mediapart
  Long piece deconstructing the Rabaa massacre
• Le pétrolier Total quitte l’Iran et renonce à un vaste projet gazier | Le Monde
  Iran formally announces Total withdrawal due to US pressure
• Qatar, Turkey central banks ink currency swap deal
• Water Wars on the Nile | Foreign Affairs
  Good overview of Nile & Red Sea geopolitics by Michael Hanna and Daniel Benaim
• A Place of Distinctive Despair | Brookings
  Fred Wehrey and Emad Badi on Sirte
• A Top Syrian Scientist Is Killed, and Fingers Point at Israel | NYT
• The World Abetted Assad's Victory in Syria
  Christopher Phillips
• Beyond fragility: Syria and the challenges of reconstruction in fierce states
  Steve Heydemann
• Foreign Belly Dancers? Egyptians Shake Their Heads (and Hips) | NYT
• Five Books That Take You Beyond One Thousand and One Nights
• The Thousand and One Nights (Alf Layla wa-Layla) (2 vols.)
• The Reith Lectures | BBC
  Margaret MacMillan examines the role of civilians as supporters and victims of conflict.
• Scholars Decry Arrest of Ph.D. Student in Egypt
  MESA statement on Waleed Khalil el-Sayed Salem.
• UAE extends compulsory military service to 16 months amid Yemen war
  At what point do Emiratis say, no conscription without representation?
• The Maps of Israeli Settlements That Shocked Barack Obama | The New Yorker
  Not that he did anything about it.
• Anthropology of Coptic Christianity Since 2012
  A reading list of recent literature
• Egypt Sentences Lebanese Tourist to 8 Years in Prison for Facebook Video | NYT
  You can't make this stuff up.
• How the West and the UN Failed Libya | Atlantic Council
  Striking talk of partition in this piece.
• 6-meter-high barrier to seal off airport area south of Arish under construction | Mada Masr
• How a victorious Bashar al-Assad is changing Syria | The Economist
• Pourquoi les Juifs ont quitté le Maroc | Youtube
  Interesting documentary on why Jews (mostly) left Morocco (French/Hebrew) in the 60s.
• Unwelcome Sound on Germany’s Stages: Musicians Who Boycott Israel
  It's not complicated, Germany: being pro-BDS comes from the same values as being anti-Nazi.
• France aiding Egypt repression through arms sales: NGOs | Al Jazeera
• Syrian government offensive has displaced at least 270,000 in southwest

Buy on Amazon

Do check out the latest episode of the Bulaq podcast, in which Marcia and Ursula talk to the legendary Karl Sharro aka @KarlRemarks about his new book and more. And buy Karl's book, his Twitter account alone is a public good for mental sanity! 

The links for the last couple of weeks are below.

• Anfass propose une loi d'amnistie générale en faveur des activistes des mouvements sociaux - Le Desk
  General amnesty proposed for Rif convicts.
• Au Maroc, les militants du Rif écopent d’une vie en prison | Mediapart
  Extensive coverage of Rif verdict (FR)
• Abdellah Tourabi: pourquoi “le procès du Rif” est une erreur historique - H24info
  Important column on Rif verdict in Morocco.
• Prisoners of a Vision: Dissidents in Sisi’s Egypt
  Tom Stevenson in LA Review of Books.
• Leaders of protests in Morocco's Rif region (calling for hospitals, schools, an end to corruption) get 20 year prison sentences
• Seymour Hersh on Syria: "There's no such thing as a chlorine bomb"
  La vieillesse est un naufrage.
• Morocco jails protest leaders for up to 20 years for 2016 rallies
  This is an outrageous injustice.
• The World Today With Tariq Ali - Saudi Arabia: A Brute in the Driver’s Seat
  Interview with Madawi al-Rasheed.
• A Ghost Army of Workers Is Paid to Do Nothing in the Gulf | Bloomberg
• Why Russia’s Middle East Gamble Has a Limited Payoff | WSJ
  Yaroslav Trofimov.
• Who controls Libya's oil riches? | Al Jazeera English
• Russian Forces in Syria and the Building of a Sustainable Military Presence | Arab Reform Initiative
  Interesting paper on how Russia is actually running the Syrian army.
• China Smells Opportunity in the Middle East’s Crisis | Foreign Policy
• Libya’s lawless skies | Airwars
• The U.S. Has Conducted 550 Drone Strikes in Libya Since 2011 — More Than in Somalia, Yemen, or Pakistan | The Intercept
• La politique du feuilleton (2/2) : l’Arabie saoudite refait le passé | CPA
  Yves Quinjano-Gonzalez.
• Trump's 'Deal of the Century' for the Middle East Might Live or Die in Cairo | Haaretz
  Almost everything in this Zvi Bar'el article is ludicrous.
• Egypt taking risks with sharp subsidy cuts, economists say | Reuters
• One Chlorine Bomb, Dozens Killed in Syria: How Assad Gassed His Own People | NYT
  Must-watch
• The other Lebanese | Synaps
  On Palestinan youth in Lebanon.
• Migrants : l’Europe à la dérive | Libération
  Excellent overview of EU migration debate, which seems to boil down for Macron-Merkel to processing camps for migrants in Southern Europe and North Africa (neither wants them).
• Asmarat: The state’s model housing for former ‘slum’ residents
  Great reporting by @madamasr on Orwellian housing project: no trees, no shops, no vendors, and guards at the gate!
• A Website Seeks to Show ‘How Alive Arabic Is’
  @ursulind profiles self-proclaimed "Arabic nerd," greater of online dictionary Living Arabic, for @alfanar
• Conventional Humanitarian Solutions Fail the Test
  Parastou Hassouri in MERIP on the untenable current system for helping refugees
• Algeria and Iraq shut down internet to prevent exam cheating
  Absurd, stupid, neanderthal.
• What Happens Now in Syria? | LobeLog
  Interview with Joshua Landis.
• Limiting Change Through Change: The Key to the Algerian Regime’s Longevity | Carnegie
  Dalia Ghanem-Yazbeck.
• Israel Charges a Former Minister With Spying for Iran | NYT
• Why Arab states have lots of expensive villas | The Economist
  And not enough cheap homes.
• The last salt miners of Morocco | Al Jazeera
• A New Standard for the Gulf States | LRB blog
  Pretty shocking stat from Oliver Miles: over 1200 workers have died in last 3 years in Qatar, largely on World Cup 2022 projects.
• Early Elections Would Be a Disaster | Foreign Affairs
  Frederic Wehrey and Wolfram Lacher - yup!

• The Long Shadow of 9/11 
  Rob Malley and Jon Finer on US counter-terrorism policy
• Malley and Finer’s Foreign Affairs Article “The Long Shadow of 9/11,” Annotated
  by Alex Thurston of the Sahel Blog
• Who gets to tell Iraq’s history?
  Avi Asher-Shapiro on the NYT ISIS document affair.
• The Brief, Particular Cruelty of Morocco’s Own Goal
• La politique du feuilleton (1/2) : l’Égypte et sa police
  There were six series praising the police on Egyptian TV this Ramadan.
• Libyan army arrests former bin Laden driver Abu Sufian bin Qumu in Derna
  I really wonder why he is considered one of the most important people in Al Qaeda if he was just OBL's driver.
• The outrageous racism that 'graced' Arab TV screens in Ramadan
  Ramadan series think blackface is funny.
• The Mask It Wears
  Pankaj Mishra on liberal internationalism.
• Mohamed Salah and the power to inspire dreams | Mada Masr
  Selim Mohie
• Maghreb: Dream of Unity, Reality of Divisions
  Anouar Boukhars
• The Real Reason the Middle East Hates NGOs
  Steven Cook
• Scotland-sized 'dead zone' discovered in Gulf of Oman
• Morocco’s Religious Diplomacy: To What End?
  Sarah Alaoui
• Is Morocco’s boycott the future of political resistance in north Africa? | MEE
  Max Gallien
• Top US official eyes Israel's Egypt border for Trump wall ideas
• Who Is Behind Trump’s Links to Arab Princes? A Billionaire Friend | NYT
  David D. Kirkpatrick
• Moscow’s Maghreb Moment
  Dalia Ghanem-Yazbeck and Vasily Kuznetsov
• Islam’s New ‘Native Informants’
  Nesrine Malek on Ali, Nawaz, etc.
• Newspaper Pledges to Return ISIS Documents to Iraq
  @ursulind in @AlFanarMedia on the resolution (seemingly) of the NYTimes' removal of ISIS files from Iraq
• What Happens in the Gulf Doesn’t Stay in the Gulf
  Rob Malley on how Qatar-UAE rivalry is destabilizing Somalia
• Saudi Arabia Suffers Shock Collapse In Inward Investment - Forbes
  Funny how that happens when you arrest and blackmail your businessmen.
• Sisi's 'final' term? | Mada Masr
  Must-read for Egypt-watchers on constitutional amendments
• Innocence Abroad
  @ursulind on what American can learn abroad, and the writing of Henry James, Suzy Hansen, James Baldwin & Omar El Akkad

• Jordan struggles for survival strategy in shadow of US-Israeli-Saudi axis | Middle East Eye
  Sean Yom manages to make Jordan sound exciting.
• Climate change is making the Arab world more miserable
  Great.
• Jordan's king freezes price hikes after days of protests
• Cambridge Analytica’s Parent Company Helped Shape Saudi Arabia’s Reform Movement
  This is fascinating.
• Misery as Strategy: The Human Cost of Conflict
  ICG's Caroline Flintoft
• Q&A – Tunisia in Transition: A Comparative View from Thomas Carothers
• Why Egypt Is at the Forefront of Hepatitis C Treatment
  Impressive effort.
• Tunisia and the International Community since 2011: Rentierism, Patronage and Moral Hazard | Jadaliyya
• The Life Span of Alternative Media: Cases of Lakome and Mamfakinch in Morocco | Jadaliyya
• Kuwait's careful balancing act with Iran, Saudi Arabia
  A primer by Hamad Albloshi
• A Century of Arab Art, Compressed Into a Book: @ursulind's review in @alfanar of a new and fascinating entry in @MuseumModernArt Primary Documents series
• Recognizing Annexation: Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem
  Joel Beinin for MERIP
• The arrest of an Egyptian satirist shines a light on the government's system of intimidation
• After dumping the nuclear deal, Trump has no strategy for Iran
  Very good piece by Suzanne Maloney esp. on the inflated expectations of the JCPOA.
• The Brazen Bootlegging of a Multibillion-Dollar Sports Network
  Great story by Tariq Panja.
• Egypt: The use of indefinite solitary confinement against prisoners amounts to torture | Amnesty International