اول العلاقات مع النفط: حسين عُوَيني والشبكة السعودية

Bidayat

Before Rafic Hariri, there was Hussein Oweini — the first Saudi-naturalized citizen to become Lebanon's prime minister.

هل الاقتصاديات العربية ريعية؟ حالتا مصر ولبنان

Are Arab Economies Rentier? The Cases of Egypt and Lebanon

Bidayat

The concept of "rentier economy" is inverted from a negative symptom to an inherent feature of capitalism, where exploitation extends beyond production to strongly impact the market.

أوّل العلاقات مع النفط: حسين العُوَيني والشبكة السعوديّة

The First Oil Connections: Hussein al-Oweini and the Saudi Network

Bidayat

Before the discovery of oil, Hussein Aoueini, a naturalized Saudi and later a Lebanese Prime Minister, was the first agent of Saudi interests in Lebanon, accumulating wealth and influence and paving the way for the Kingdom's penetration into its economy and politics.

مئوية لبنان: البدايات، المحطات، العلاقات

Lebanon's Centenary: Beginnings, Milestones, Relations

Bidayat

This special issue investigates Lebanon's centenary by examining its colonial beginnings and revealing how "Greater Lebanon" was founded on French economic interests and the instrumentalization of politicized religious minorities.

Social Justice Lecture

A lecture: the Arab revolutions are a critique-in-practice of neoliberalism—the World Bank forgot about job creation, and "we are ruled by Ali Baba and the forty thieves—and they don't even reach forty."

النفط في المِخيال العربي تقاسيم على مقام السوائل

Oil in the Arab Imaginary: Variations on the Mode of Liquids

Bidayat

Oil is the devil's urine, said Judge al-Hajari — then drank deeply of it. Variations on the mode of liquids: water, tears, semen, blood, and oil.

النفط في الزمن الثوري

Oil in Revolutionary Times

As-Safir

Where is the oil money? — a citizen sells a child while five princes take revenue from a million barrels daily.

اوباما ونتنياهو بين لغة الاجساد ولغة المخاتلة 

Obama and Netanyahu Between Body Language and the Language of Deception

As-Safir

Sixteen agencies confirm: no Iranian weapon — Netanyahu defends a monopoly on 300 warheads the world knows nothing about.

تيم ميتشيل عن الريع

Timothy Mitchell on Rent

Bidayat

Exploitation happens not only in production but in the market — the answer to rent isn't "production" but progressive taxation.

Yemen Elections

On the eve of unified Yemen's first elections: will the regime combine the best of both experiences or return to one-man rule? Education reform faces demands to restore Sharia as the sole source of legislation.

Social Justice is back? – Princeton lecture

Is social justice back? Neoliberalism banned it for a quarter century—and the Arab revolutions brought it back with "The people want": a return to the concepts of the national liberation phase.

رأسمالية بلا مصالح – وامبريالية من دون استغلال 

Capitalism Without Interests - And Imperialism Without Exploitation

Al-Akhbar

Debate: capitalism without interests, imperialism without exploitation — post-colonialism replaces the thing with its image. Arafat asked for "understanding" in exchange for oil; the demand degraded to "some interest."

نفط وديمقراطية

Oil and Democracy

As-Safir

Amidst events in Sudan, Kurdistan, and Yemen, this text links oil to the absence of democracy and wealth mismanagement, questioning how oil has become an obstacle to unity and a catalyst for separatism.

سلاح النفط في المعركة… الاخرى

The Oil Weapon in the... Other Battle

As-Safir

$60 billion in US jets on the eve of negotiations — the oil weapon no longer targets Israel but buys its protection, changing the combat doctrine.

عندما تتحول القوة الى ضعف

When Strength Turns into Weakness

As-Safir

Lieberman tells the truth: two years to Judaize Jerusalem, then "population exchange"—expelling '48 Palestinians. The Saudi king begs Obama to revive the initiative—just talk.

خطاب نتنياهو: برسم التاريخ والنفط!

Netanyahu's Speech: For the Record of History and Oil!

As-Safir

No state, no return, no Jerusalem—the Arab narrative stutters after Oslo, accepting 1967 as the conflict's "origin." When normalization is the "last card," it has no conditions.

السيادة العراقية بين الاتفاق الامني وخصخصة النفط

Iraqi Sovereignty Between the Security Agreement and the Privatization of Oil

As-Safir

The occupation exits through the military window and returns through the oil gate—Basra follows Kurdistan in privatizing Iraq's wealth.

For an Arab-Kurdish Federation in Iraq

An-Nahar

Translation: Iraqi federalism should be based on the national divide, not the sectarian one—and the occupation destroyed the state, not just the regime. Kirkuk's oil belongs to all Iraqis.

العراق: حروف لنقاط النفط والدم

Iraq: Letters for the Dots of Oil and Blood

As-Safir

The occupation punished an entire sect for a regime—what's needed is Arab-Kurdish federalism and just distribution of Iraq's two rivers: water and oil.

المثلث الفاجع: امريكا، اسرائيل، النفط

The Fatal Triangle: America, Israel, Oil

As-Safir

$20 billion in Gulf arms: not defense but protection money from obscenely wealthy regimes for their thrones—and Arab oil has become a weapon against the Arabs.