Image is of fires in northern Israel set off by Hezbollah, to force settlers to retreat from their occupied areas, in response to attacks on civilians in Lebanon.


I'm not gonna lie to you - I thought Israel would have started shit with Hezbollah by now which would have derailed whatever megathread theme I had planned, so I didn't bother planning one.

If you want a decent couple pieces going over what Hezbollah has done to Israel, then have a look at How 'Israel' Has Lost The North and Hezbollah's Quarterly Report. It's not exactly the most professional analysis, as you'll see if you read it, but it gets the point across and relies on evidence. In essence, Hezbollah has pushed the Israelis back tens of kilometers and decimated their border infrastructure, all while unveiling anti-aircraft missiles that have forced Israel to reconsider bombing runs. They still probably have the ability to turn various towns and cities in Lebanon to rubble, but Hezbollah can do massive damage back to Israel in turn. This has gone on so long with so little meaningful opposition by Israel that border settlements are going a little haywire and tentatively declaring independence from Israel and saying they don't want IDF troops there anymore. I don't take these terribly seriously from a military standpoint but it is indicative of the Zionist settler mindset crumbling over the last 9 months.

We're now at the point where Israel kinda has to go to war against Hezbollah or the entire Zionist ideology of military deterrence and expansion via illegal settlements simply no longer functions, but that war will also lead to massive destruction for military and civilian facilities (ports, power stations, war factories, etc) which is a massive problem for Israel's continued existence. Hamas continues to function inside Gaza despite the surface occupation of significant areas, including the Gaza-Egypt border, and attrition there is leading to big materiel and psychological losses for Israel too. And Yemen has, for all intents and purposes, prevailed against America's failed attempt to thwart their blockade - with some in the army claiming it's the most intense naval battle America has faced since WW2 - and missile strikes are tentatively beginning to hit or at least threaten ships in the Mediterranean Sea.

Nukes are still lurking quietly in the background, of course, but the Resistance is perfectly aware of that and still seems confident to go ahead with operations, so I can't really do anything but shrug and say that I trust them to do what's right.


The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The Country of the Week is Lebanon! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful. Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.


  • thelastaxolotl [he/him]
    ·
    5 months ago

    Yesterday the Palestinian Youth Movement called out the squad and the DSA for their support of Biden

    PYM's response to recent attacks and demonization of the Palestinian liberation movement in the United States by opportunists and members of the so-called "American left":

    For the last 9 months, people all across the United States have organized in opposition to Israel’s genocide, and for the last 9 months, the Biden administration has ignored our mass movement, continuing to arm and facilitate this genocide. Biden and all elected officials who have endorsed him have blood of over 40,000 Palestinians on their hands. Elected officials — self-proclaimed as progressive or otherwise — who have voted to send money to the Zionist entity, or who have vilified the movement for Palestine, have the blood of our people on their hands.

    As we near the 2024 elections, we know that these same elected officials will try to garner support from our community and movement. They, alongside the so-called progressive organizations endorsing them, will use the rhetoric of “lesser of two evils,” “vote out fascism” and “vote blue no matter who” to try to pressure us to back the very politicians responsible for genocide. And when we refuse — which we will — they will blame Palestinian organizations and communities for Republican victories. Let us be clear: the Democrats have no one to blame but themselves.

    In the last few weeks, Democratic Socialists of America electeds Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman smeared the Palestine movement, targeting @WOLPalestine for organizing a protest outside an exhibit meant to manufacture further consent for the genocide of our people. Following these smears and in response to AOC, Bowman, and Sanders’ endorsement of genocider-in-chief Joe Biden, WOL called for a protest outside a rally organized by AOC. What followed was a smear campaign against WOL, with so called progressives aiming to fed-jacket WOL for holding DSA electeds accountable.

    For the past few years, PYM and the broader Palestine movement has sought to hold DSA accountable for its relationship and support for elected candidates who directly and materially support Israel and the Zionist movement through their votes for military aid, repression of the Palestine movement, and repeated attacks and smears of our movement. As a result of these efforts, we have witnessed DSA members smear, vilify, and fed-jacket our organization and members, as well as DSA members who support a more principled and concrete position on Zionism.

    The so-called “progressives” of the Democratic party, from AOC to Bowman to Sanders, are complicit in this genocide: from endorsing Biden, to voting to send money to the Zionist entity, to smearing Palestinian organizations and conflating anti-Zionism with anti-semitism. Let us be clear: no amount of “lesser of two evils” rhetoric will bully the Palestine movement into supporting those complicit in the genocide of our people. We affirm that we have not only a right, but an obligation, to disrupt the activities of all electeds complicit in this genocide.

    We condemn attempts to scapegoat the Palestinian movement for the results of any upcoming elections, and reject attempts by self-proclaimed progressive organizations to paint Palestinian organizations as unstrategic for refusing to buy into the push to “vote blue no matter who” while US bombs continue to rain down on our people in Gaza.

    The lack of accountability we are being asked to accept is in fact a self-fulfilling prophecy whose promise is oppression and mass death. Our movement has the right to hold accountable those who deviate from these principles, especially when others will not.