Two weeks ago, a judge ordered the release of a 34-year-old named Mohsen Mahdawi, a graduate student detained weeks earlier by Department of Homeland Security agents in Vermont. The usual suspects, including pundits, professors, and our self-appointed intellectual and moral betters, celebrated Mahdawi's newfound freedom, arguing that detaining him—during his naturalization interview, no less—was an egregious overreach and that the Trump administration had no good case to make against Mahdawi. It was such a perfect storm of virtue signaling, complete with Mahdawi himself delivering a defiant speech from the courthouse steps, that the facts, as they usually do in such cases, were drowned out by the sound and fury.

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Academic Middle Eastern studies at American universities for decades have focused mainly on a limited number of topics: the embrace of every academic fashion at the expense of language study, classical literature and history; the vilification of Israel and the U.S. in the name of postcolonial guilt and imperialism, paired not coincidentally in the Iranian fashion as the "Little Satan" and the "Great Satan"; and obsessive attention on "Palestine" as the discipline's central concern, mirroring the approach of Arab nationalists and Islamists.

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As it unfurls, the saga of Mahmoud Khalil—the Columbia agitator picked up by immigration enforcement last week—looks less like a complicated immigration-law dispute and more like something out of a John le Carré novel.

But inspect the details, and Khalil's case gives us a glimpse a well-established network linking American universities, international progressive NGOs, and government agencies. This network places ideologues like Khalil in positions of power and influence and promoting radical policies that challenge both the will of American voters and our national-security interests.

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What are the next steps for university leaders and donors after the Trump administration's slew of executive orders on removing diversity, equity, and inclusion policies from American life, identifying and removing hostile foreign students, and protecting Jewish students?

Some necessary measures are a simple matter of compliance. Traditionally, universities faced with threats complain loudly about the end of the world, hide the ball — in this case, rename DEI activities, including policies, offices/personnel, and courses — and claim they have complied with mandated changes while hiring Washington lobbyists to establish diplomatic relations with the new administration.

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As the Israel-Hamas cease-fire arrives at its pivotal second phase, Egypt has emerged as the unlikely focal point for the next stage of the multifront war that has consumed the Middle East since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack.

Although most of the world has focused on Gaza over the past 16 months, the ongoing Near Eastern conflict has revealed the stark fragility of Israeli-Egyptian relations.

President Trump's declaration earlier this month that the US would "own Gaza" has revived fears in Cairo that Egypt will ultimately bear the brunt of solving the "Gaza" problem.

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