Links 1 July - 20 August 2018

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