Image is of the King of Morocco meeting with John Kerry (a species of demon that plagued Hexbear in the misty past).


This preamble comes courtesy of @LargePenis@hexbear.net:

Morocco (Al Maghrib), or more officially the Kingdom of Morocco (Al Mamlaka al Maghribiya), is a country located in the northwestern edge of the African continent. The name Morocco comes from the Spanish name Marruecos, which itself comes from the name of the city of Marrakesh. In Turkish for example, Morocco is known as Fas, mainly because Turks knew the land of Morocco through the city of Fes. Morocco is regarded as part of the Arab World and Arabic is the main language amongst the population, with French and Berber languages also widely spoken in the country.

Morocco was the home of mostly Berber tribes until the Muslim conquest and the subsequent Arab migrations in the 700s under the Umayyads drastically changed the character of the country. A Berber commander, Tariq ibn Ziyad, would later cross the Strait of Gibraltar (Jabal Tariq) from the northern shores of now-Morocco and conquer Andalusia, which remained under Muslim rule for nearly 800 years. The country emerged as a significant regional power during the Almoravid and Almohad dynasties in the medieval period, known for their contributions to architecture, philosophy, and trade across North Africa and southern Europe. The current ruling dynasty of Morocco, the Alaouite dynasty, came to power in the late 1600s. The Alaouites claim descent from the Prophet Muhammad through his grandson Hasan ibn Ali, giving them religious legitimacy and political authority in the region. Despite the Shia-coded claim to legitimacy, the Moroccan royal family and the population mostly follow the Maliki school of Sunni Islam.

In the early 20th century, the Treaty of Fez (1912) created the French Protectorate of Morocco, negotiated largely without input from the Moroccan people. Moroccan lands were completely divided under French and Spanish zones, with thousands of colonists pouring into the country. The royal family frequently collaborated with colonial powers, suppressing local resistance movements and prioritizing European interests. Prominent anti-colonial uprisings, like the Rif War (1921–1926), were met with brutal crackdowns, enabled by Western-backed forces. Post-independence in 1956, Morocco maintained close ties with its former colonizers, fostering economic dependence on France and Spain. The monarchy’s alignment with Western geopolitical interests often undermined Pan-African and Arab unity movements.

During the Cold War, Morocco positioned itself as a staunch ally of the West, marginalizing leftist and nationalist factions within the country. The Green March of 1975 was a Moroccan state-organized movement to assert control over Western Sahara, a territory decolonized from Spanish rule but still awaiting self-determination. This march, supported by Western powers, particularly the United States, is often criticized as a colonial expansion disguised as a popular movement. By settling Moroccans in the disputed territory, the march disregarded the Sahrawi people’s right to sovereignty. U.N. resolutions on Western Sahara have seen limited enforcement, largely due to Morocco’s Western alliances shielding it from accountability. Western-backed security and intelligence partnerships continue to be the cornerstone of Morocco’s repressive nature towards any anti-colonial and leftist movements. In 2021, Algeria again severed diplomatic ties with Morocco, citing hostile actions and concerns over Morocco’s ties with Israel, which Algeria views as a betrayal of pro-Palestinian solidarity. The two countries have mostly clashed over the issue of Western Sahara other than a short war in the 60s over a border dispute, with Algeria continuing to support the Sahrawi independence movement.

Morocco’s relations with Israel have historically been discreet but significant, rooted in the presence of a large Moroccan Jewish diaspora in Israel. Former King Hassan II played a significant behind-the-scenes role in fostering covert ties between Morocco and Israel during his reign. King Hassan II is reported to have allowed Israeli intelligence access to critical information from a meeting of Arab leaders in Casablanca in 1965, which may have helped Israel prepare for the Six-Day War in 1967. His government provided a platform for discreet diplomatic exchanges and intelligence-sharing, including Morocco’s facilitation of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s visit to Israel in the 1970s. In 2020, Morocco formally normalized ties with Israel through the Abraham Accords, brokered by the United States, in exchange for U.S. and Israeli recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. Diplomatic and trade relations have since deepened, with agreements in fields like defence, agriculture, and technology. Despite official ties, Moroccan public opinion remains largely sympathetic to Palestinians, but such opinions are rarely considered by the royal family.

Morocco’s future is split between ambitious global aspirations and permanent domestic issues. The country’s co-hosting of the 2030 FIFA World Cup with Spain and Portugal is seen as a significant opportunity to showcase its shiny infrastructure and global presence. However, these achievements are often overshadowed by criticisms of its political culture, including the monarchy’s ceremonial practices, such as the humiliating tradition of publicly kissing the crown prince’s hand. Allegations surrounding King Mohammed VI’s personal behavior, including incidents of public drunkenness and alleged homosexuality continue to be a hot topic within opposition circles.


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 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.
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.

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.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
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.


    • CleverOleg [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      What’s never clear to me when a “ceasefire” is being discussed is whether it’s an agreement with the Lebanese government, or with Hezbollah. I usually assume it’s the former so it’s not going to be an actual ceasefire since it’s not the Lebanese government but rather Hezbollah that’s doing the actual fighting.

        • Z_Poster365 [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          1 month ago

          What does US electoral politics have to do with anything? Trump and Biden have identical positions on the Israel issue, it’s immaterial who is president in the US and Hezbollah has said as much very clearly on multiple occasions.

          I swear some of you make up reasons to get panicked and feel like you are losing, even while we are winning

          • AssortedBiscuits [they/them]@hexbear.net
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            1 month ago

            I really don’t understand why people are still falling for ceasefire talks. If the Zionist entity actually wants a ceasefire, they’ll just fucking do it. The Axis of Resistance has been perfectly clear for more than a year at this point what their conditions for a ceasefire are (the freeing of all Palestinian prisoners within Zionist prisons among others). It’s like the time when they had the prisoner exchange between Hamas at the very beginning of the war. There wasn’t any rumors floating around. They just fucking held the prisoner exchange.

            People here continue to weigh words (and rumors of words for the case of these ceasefire rumors) way too much. No, Putin is not going to drop hints of his grandiose plan to own the US and the rest of the West in some boilerplate speech broadcasted on RT. No, Xi briefly shaking hands and appearing in a photo op with Biden at COP23 doesn’t mean China will somehow capitulate to the US. No, Qaani not giving some “I’m actually alive guys” press conference doesn’t mean he’s dead from a heart attack or locked up in some Saudi dungeon.

        • Moss [they/them]@hexbear.net
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          1 month ago

          Is there any reason to assume they would? Trump doesn’t take power for 6 weeks and a lot could change in that time. Also, would Hezbollah assume Trump will be much different anyway?

          • Halloweenbean [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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            1 month ago

            He might send troops to avenge the base that got blown back in the day or he might go full Iran contra and pull peace in our time out of his ass like super Reagan. (Antichrist tech tree)

            • Z_Poster365 [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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              1 month ago

              US troops in Lebanon would face the same fate they faced last time, sitting around doing nothing until their barracks get blown up. The US population has no appetite for more extended endless occupations in the Middle East and will quickly grow disillusioned, and Trump’s base will see it as a betrayal of his promises of ending conflicts. There is no incentive whatsoever for the US to send troops into Lebanon and it no longer even has the capability for extended ground based occupations.

    • P1d40n3 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 month ago

      I am convinced that the Zionists want another civil war in Lebanon. If the government agrees to a ceasefire without taking Hezbollah into account, then it could easily spark a civil war.

      Death to Zionism.

      • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        I am convinced that the Zionists want another civil war in Lebanon.

        I agree. One of the rumoured terms of this ceasefire is that a new presidential election in Lebanon is required.

      • carpoftruth [any, any]@hexbear.netM
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        I am convinced that the Zionists want another civil war in Lebanon

        They definitely do, Israeli statements have highlighted the tension between Lebanon the state and Hezbollah before.

    • RaisedFistJoker [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      1 month ago

      what are the odds of “Oh no guys we were SO close to a ceasefire but then they retalliated against our aggression they attacked us unprovoked, guess that means the deals off”

      • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        1 month ago

        Possible but I think Israel has resoundingly lost this war with Hezbollah and wants to disengage.

        Not by a little bit either, Hezbollah have kicked the shit out of them.

        • Moss [they/them]@hexbear.net
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          1 month ago

          In what ways have Hezbollah kicked the shit out of Israel? I’ve not been following this particular issue much. Is it that Israel has failed to make any real gains since invading?

          • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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            1 month ago

            Israel has been completely incapable of taking territory. Hezbollah meets them in conventional warfare and has defeated their attempt to take territory over and over again. Israelis no longer want to fight them.

          • CyborgMarx [any, any]@hexbear.net
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            1 month ago

            Killing civilians doesn’t win a war, destroying 20% of the peace-time active tank stock does, which is what Hezbollah has done to Israel in the last two months

          • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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            1 month ago

            doing an ethnic cleansing of civilians while not defeating your enemy militarily is called “losing”

            I can make it my “goal” to shit my pants; if I then proceed to violently doo-doo myself, if I then say “mission accomplished. victory has been achieved, all objectives secured” then everybody around me isn’t gonna start clapping and cheering at my success

          • refolde [she/her, any]@hexbear.net
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            1 month ago

            Let’s put this in sportsball terms:

            If you were deliberately trying to injure the other team’s players instead of trying to score points (pursuing real military goals that can actually debilitate the side you are fighting), you will end up losing 0-100 or something. Saying that your goal all along is just to injure the other team’s players and that you are accomplishing your goals doesn’t change the fact that you’re losing 0-100.

    • Parzivus [any]@hexbear.net
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      Didn’t they just say that they couldn’t do a peace deal anymore because the ICC warrant meant French mediators couldn’t participate or something? Like yesterday? Makes my head spin trying to keep up with it

    • Commiejones [comrade/them, he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 month ago

      Never trust any talk of a ceasefire. isisrael will not stop its genocide in Gaza unless it is forced to. usa will not force isisrael to stop its genocide. The resistance will not stop until the genocide stops. There will be no ceasefire. Any talk of a ceasefire is just gaslighting to make it sound like isisrael and the us are trying to stop the killing.

        • Commiejones [comrade/them, he/him]@hexbear.net
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          1 month ago

          Which means they haven’t spoken with Hezbollah.

          Nasrallah was not a dictator. His stance on there being no ceasefire without a ceasefire in Gaza was not a top down decision. This is a policy that permeates Hezbollah. Just as it is with Ansarallah.

          isisrael has a pathological compulsion to take Gaza and kill or displace all Gazans. They cannot help themselves even if they want to.

          There was a chance back when the prisoner swap happened but the ability for isisrael to hold itself back is gone now. There is no middle ground to be had. Either isisrael will completely destroy Hamas, Hezbollah, Ansarallah and possibly Iran or Gaza will be liberated and isisrael will be destroyed. (my money is on the latter)