Arab Digest podcasts

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Egyptian analyst and author Maged Mandour. They explore the reasons behind President Sisi's virtual silence as the IDF conducts its genocide in Gaza while increasing land seizures in the Occupied West Bank and enlarging the war into Lebanon. Maged Mandour reveals that economic and ideological factors are behind Egypt's abandonment of Palestine and the Palestinians.

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When the French president recognised Morocco's claim to the disputed territory of Western Sahara he sought to burnish his tarnished reputation in North Africa. Francis Ghilès joins Arab Digest editor Wiliam Law to discuss why Macron's efforts are likely to produce few if any positive results and he argues that the situation won't change unless France - and Europe - see North Africa through a different set of lenses.

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Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes back the Libyan analyst Tarek Megerisi for a wide ranging conversation about the criminal activities of the two families that rule in a divided Libya squandering the country's wealth while playing Europe and the EU for patsies in the lucrative, ever growing and utterly ruthless industry of human trafficking.

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Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is Jon Hoffman a research fellow in defence and foreign policy at Washington's Cato Institute with a particular specialism in US policy in the Middle East. Donald Trump's emphatic victory in this week's presidential election comes at a time when the MENA region is convulsed by war. In his triumphal victory speech Trump promised peace but will his erratic and transactional approach drive the region ever closer to all out war?

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Arab Digest editor William Law is joined by the Kurdish American journalist Sirwan Kajjo. A recent parliamentary election in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq featured a high turnout and a strong showing by a new party, both indications that the grip of the two families that have controlled the region for decades is beginning to slip. Meantime Iraqi Kurdistan continues a delicate balancing act as the war in the Levant between Israel and Iran's proxies burns on.

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Arab Digest editor William Law is joined by the Sudanese political analyst Kholood Khair. Their conversation focusses on a war that has gone on for 18 months and has caused the worst humanitarian disaster in the world. Sudan's people are the victims of two generals vying for dominance backed by outside players who like the generals have no concern for them. Nor judging by its silence does the rest of the world.

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Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Quincy Institute's Annelle Sheline who quit the US State Department in protest at her government's Gaza policy. She argues that rather than restraining Israel the Biden administration is backing Netanyahu's efforts to provoke a major war with Iran in order to redraw the map of the Middle East.

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Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the head of the Middle East programme at London's Chatham House Sanam Vakil. Their conversation focusses on Iran and Israel as the confrontation between the two edges ever closer to a hot war. Also on the agenda are Saudi Arabia and the UAE and the efforts they are making to avoid such a war. What too should the UK be doing to champion diplomacy rather than weaponry in the search for regional security and peace?

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Arab Digest editor William Law is joined by the security and defence analyst Andreas Krieg. As the intensity of Israeli attacks increases Dr Krieg - who has written a groundbreaking book on the weaponisation of narratives by state and non-state actors - details how such narratives are driving the Middle East toward all out war and he offers proposals about what the UK and the Starmer government could do right now to help avert a looming catastrophe.

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With tensions rising daily in the region, Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes the Cato Institute's Jon Hoffman to the podcast. As Israel pounds Lebanon and Hezbollah fires rockets back the slide into a full scale war looms but Washington's response is the same as it ever was: call for restraint while backing Israel to the hilt.

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