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
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.
Georgian parliament gives initial approval to sweeping curbs on LGBT rights (Reuters)
Remember when people here were celebrating Georgia cracking down on foreign NGOs? Yeah, this is what it leads to. Be careful what you wish for next time.
unironic rainbow imperialism posting
NGOs have nothing to do with this. The NGOs are vessels for colour revolution and foreign interference. The crackdown was because they were being used to steer the country towards nato. There is fundamentally nothing stopping these curbs on rights happening with those NGOs around too, and lgbt rights in Georgia aren't an effective vessel for colour rev either.
THE POLITICS UNDERSTANDER HAS LOGGED ON
You have it backwards. Tying LGBT activism and rights to foreign NGOs dooms LGBT rights.
The next step will be to label left wing parties as “foreign agents” just like what they are accusing the LGBT activists of.
Note that I am not saying that foreign NGOs don’t influence their domestic politics and are as tools to advance Western imperialism in those countries. I am saying that be careful of what such a law can do against left wing movements when it is wielded by right wing reactionary governments.
Knowing where the funding for foreign NGO's comes from is still a good idea, regardless of the affects on the rights of LGBTQ people, which you can pretend is inherent, but it's not. The primary contradiction is still imperialism, not gay rights. It's a shame that they are the political football, but wanting to know where the money is coming from will never be a bad decision for a government to make.
how does a requirement to identify foreign agent NGOs which is shared by every western nation lead to curbing LGBTQ rights????
It is a common excuse used by right wing reactionary states to label LGBT activists as “foreign influence”.
This is simply a reminder to those who uncritically support right wing reactionary governments who curb foreign NGOs (which I am not opposed to, in principle) in the name of “anti-imperialism” that the same excuse will be used against our LGBT comrades and also left wingers down the road, by simply accusing them of being “Western influence” now that the law already exists.
I'm sorry, this is irrational. Nobody wished for LGBTQ crackdowns, they aren't inevitable, and the solution to this isn't to allow a thousand CIA-backed NGOs to run rampant through a nation.
I don’t disagree. It is a difficult problem. I am just saying to beware of supporting certain laws even though they claim to do it in the name of “anti-imperialism”, especially if the party claiming to do so is right winger themselves.
As someone who lives in a country where rainbow imperialism and western megachurch funding walk hand in hand to create a precarious situation for LGBT rights, I'd say the problem isn't difficult at all. There is a horizontal monopoly on the material conditions that lead to this, and it's called NATO.
I really don't think I understand what you're saying. We should beware of supporting unequivocally good laws because reactionary elements might try to use them to justify doing reactionary things?
Yes, it’s a tool that can be wielded for good or for evil. For example, if China enacts a law like this, we can be assured that they will use it for good. If Russia does that, I wouldn’t trust them even for a second. It’s that simple.
I'm starting to think you don't got such a good grasp on the mechanisms of imperialism