Senior editor, Carnegie Middle East Center. Author of The Ghosts of Martyrs Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon's Life Struggle (Simon & Schuster 2010).
Beirut
Joined January 2011
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I also have a Substack titled BeirutCalling (link in my profile), where I post most of my published articles and interviews, as well as original material, which I'm expanding. I encourage you to subscribe. It's free.
Michael Young retweeted
Recently, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi announced he would step down in 2030. In a Reaction Shot for Diwan, @SayighYezid asks whether this was political theater, or perhaps Sisi's effort to widen his margin of maneuver with regard to the military: carnegieendowment.org/middle… #Egypt #Sisi
Michael Young retweeted
I also have a Substack titled BeirutCalling (link in my profile), where I post most of my published articles and interviews, as well as original material, which I'm expanding. I encourage you to subscribe. It's free.
Recently, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi announced he would step down in 2030. In a Reaction Shot for Diwan, @SayighYezid asks whether this was political theater, or perhaps Sisi's effort to widen his margin of maneuver with regard to the military: carnegieendowment.org/middle… #Egypt #Sisi
Michael Young retweeted
Fine example of an article based mainly on manipulations employed by its sources—U.S., Iranian, or European—but that ultimately doesn’t tell you very much, so full of caveats is it and the fact that it is based on events whose accuracy remains in question. nytimes.com/2026/10/24/us/po…
Michael Young retweeted
The casual arrogance, drifting into psychosis, is astonishing here.
A young blonde woman with an American accent in Israel says that all the Arabs must be kicked out of Gaza because it is "our land" since "God commanded us to take it."
The Palestinians should be kicked out to any other Arab state, she continues, except Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, "because they are ours."
"Or we will kill them," she adds
Can we stop pretending that this is a marginal view in Israel? That these are the comments of a fringe minority?
They are not. Israel has been on this path for quite some time.
Western governments know it fully - yet they continue to fund and enable Israel's genocidal policies.
Michael Young retweeted
20 000 personnes sont expulsées de leurs logements à Hébron et dans la Cisjordanie pour que leurs maisons soient démolies par l'armée israélienne. Un nettoyage ethnique sous les yeux du monde.
Michael Young retweeted
Reposting by article on Marco Rubio’s recent speech in Athens defending Western civilization, which really sounded jarring in light of the collusion with Israel by leading Western countries in the slaughter in Gaza. At the same time, Rubio completely failed to address the way the global order is shifting away from the United States and the West, even if this was the prime motivation for his speech. I believe Gaza was a foundational moment in this shift, and the stain will not soon be washed away, certainly not through speeches reaffirming Western civilizational grandeur. substack.com/home/post/p-220…
Fine example of an article based mainly on manipulations employed by its sources—U.S., Iranian, or European—but that ultimately doesn’t tell you very much, so full of caveats is it and the fact that it is based on events whose accuracy remains in question. nytimes.com/2026/10/24/us/po…
The casual arrogance, drifting into psychosis, is astonishing here.
A young blonde woman with an American accent in Israel says that all the Arabs must be kicked out of Gaza because it is "our land" since "God commanded us to take it."
The Palestinians should be kicked out to any other Arab state, she continues, except Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, "because they are ours."
"Or we will kill them," she adds
Can we stop pretending that this is a marginal view in Israel? That these are the comments of a fringe minority?
They are not. Israel has been on this path for quite some time.
Western governments know it fully - yet they continue to fund and enable Israel's genocidal policies.
Michael Young retweeted
My assumptions have been, based in part on March 2 Hizbullah rocket barrage:
• Current partial calm in Lebanon only temporary before resumption of open war;
• Framework agreement embarrassing but ultimately moot because it will be superseded by renewed war;
1/2
Michael Young retweeted
Israel is uninterested in peace with Lebanon, seeks to fragment the country, maintain a buffer zone on its land, and engage in pereptual war. That's why Lebanon should avoid civil conflict. Don't believe me, believe the IDF's former intelligence head. Mine for @NationalComment: thenationalnews.com/opinion/…
Michael Young retweeted
"Are Israel’s Lebanon talks a path to peace, or a pretext for continued occupation?"
@BeirutCalling writes for @TheNationalNews
thenationalnews.com/opinion/…
Michael Young retweeted
Marco Rubio Misses the Point in Athens -Michael Young beirutcalling.substack.com/p… @BeirutCalling
Sorry to see @amanpour leaving CNN, where she was a class act. Evidently she didn't want to go through the same humiliations as CBS, managed by journalistic nonentities scraped up by the Ellisons. edition.cnn.com/2026/10/19/m…
Michael Young retweeted
What struck me most about Naza was not just hearing Israeli soldiers describe, in their own words, the horrors they witnessed and took part in during the bombing of Gaza.
But it was also how they described it: for some, the killing was “fun”. Others struggled to remember whether they had killed hundreds or thousands. They spoke with chilling casualness about the children and even babies they knew they were killing. One compared it to playing a video game.
As the credits rolled, no one moved. No one spoke. For several minutes after the film ended, everyone just sat there, stunned.
I’ve never experienced anything like it. A deafening silence that echoed the collective shock and disbelief at what we had just witnessed. A silence that spoke louder than words.
Despite Israel’s efforts to deny its direct evidence, the film NAZA is receiving rave reviews because it powerfully reveals the Israeli military’s clinical devaluing of Palestinian civilian life in Gaza, all told by Israeli military officers themselves. trib.al/ToyA0a5
Israel is uninterested in peace with Lebanon, seeks to fragment the country, maintain a buffer zone on its land, and engage in pereptual war. That's why Lebanon should avoid civil conflict. Don't believe me, believe the IDF's former intelligence head. Mine for @NationalComment: thenationalnews.com/opinion/…
Michael Young retweeted
The badly negotiated trilateral agreement by @LBpresidency appointed negotiation team well summarized: “the June agreement imposed all conditions on the #Lebanese side, above all Hezbollah’s disarmament, without requiring #Israel to fulfil any of its own. Indeed, the term “withdrawal” is not even in the document, and there is no timetable for what the text describes as a progressive [Israeli] redeployment out of Lebanese territory.”
Hezbollah is a major problem for Lebanon, but it makes little sense today to risk internal Lebanese strife just to satisfy an Israel that appears to be committed to destabilising Lebanon.
Opinion | Michael Young @BeirutCalling via @TheNationalNews thenationalnews.com/opinion/…
Michael Young retweeted
Rob insists that 242 actually does not say what it says: the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war. An “original bargain” has no legal standing. If there are any doubts, in July 2024 the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation illegal. Decision here: un.org/unispal/wp-content/up…
To that end, I propose the Admin urge #Israel to restore confidence in its commitment to the original bargain of 242 on which the lawfulness of its occupation rests, outlining six steps #Washington should counsel #Jerusalem to take - none of which flout Israel’s post-Oct 7 national consensus on security. 10/11