After 15 months of genocide - and resistance to it - the Israeli regime realized that they could not win a military victory against Hamas, and were forced to sign a humiliating ceasefire in order to get their hostages returned.
With much of Syria under the control of Al-Qaeda, and an increasing level of covert infiltration into Lebanon, the crisis in the Middle East is not over, and we may still be in its beginning stages, as the center of hegemony continues its gradual shift away from the United States. Their navy, once considered the best in the world, is likely also not very happy about their ships and aircraft carriers being forced to retreat by Yemen, one of the poorest countries; and all eyes are on Iran, who has, over the last year and a half, demonstrated a newfound confidence and strength to directly strike Israel.
The recovery for Gaza will take, at a minimum, decades; it could indeed never fully recovery to even how it was before, considering it is not in Israel’s interests to see their concentration camps recover. But Hamas has proven to be steadfast and the tunnel network has proven its resilience, despite facing some of the most powerful conventional bombing in history. This shows that Palestine’s liberation is a when, not an if; and hopefully a much sooner “when” than expected before October 7th.
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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 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.
Does Donald Trump telling Netanyahu he has to sign a ceasefire with Hamas, at least temporarily, prove that Israel doesn’t have as much “blackmail” leverage over US politicians as some people think? Trump was BFF’s with Epstein, they would have to have a ton of it on him. Or does it just mean that there is nothing you could release that would actually hurt Trump?
Israel has no leverage on the US, and it has been very perplexing to read from supposedly anti-imperialist blogs/twitters who somehow think they do. Like Ukraine, Israel’s role is to spearhead America’s imperialist interests at its periphery, without having to sacrifice the lives of a single American soldier in the process. America can literally end Israel’s economy tomorrow if they prove to be a liability.
The fact that Trump was’t even the president yet and the leaders of the world were already paying attention to every single word he spewed out of his mouth and adjusted their policies based on that, shows where the center of the global power actually lies - in the US.
Agreed, I have been consistent in saying that Israel does not create Zionist US politicians through the use of blackmail or money, but rather find Zionist candidates and puts money into their hands. The playing field would perhaps be a bit fairer if they couldn’t use money to influence elections, but the Zionist politicians would still be there, nonetheless. I am just wondering if we can finally put that trope to bed.
Agreed, the idea that it is Israel that has leverage is like people thinking it’s the tail that wags the dog. That it’s somehow the outposts giving orders to the empire. And, though I don’t think it’s intentional by people who espouse it, it comes across as downplaying America’s responsibility as the empire, as if we are hostages in the situation and wouldn’t be giving our outposts weapons and support to extend imperialism’s goals.
I think the idea is that Israeli intelligence has blackmail material on us politicians, not that Israel somehow has the weight to throw around the us.
I see. It’s their intelligence gathering and the possible blackmail that is the weight they throw around. I still don’t buy it as I don’t think it’s necessary, I think there is alignment of interests, and I feel it still paints the US as being at the mercy of crafty Israel so the earlier criticisms still hold in my mind.
I’m also very cynical about politicians and the American public, I feel that Americans would just shrug their shoulders at any “dirt” Israel could dig up. But, that’s just my competely vibe-based analysis about Americans.
That’s the claim, anyway. I don’t know how to feel about it
Understood. I may be coming on strong, and there’s always the possibility I’m dismissing something valid. Also, I didn’t want to come across as if I was attacking you or anyone directly. I know it can sound heated, especially with what is mentioned in the above description!
Part of me thinks it’s just residue anti-Semitism. It’s like thinking Zelensky can order Trump around.
I think the same. People want to make Israel the one in full control because it’s harder to wrap your head around how evil the United States is. They don’t want to believe it.
Yeah it does come across that way. Once again, I don’t think every person who espouses that thinks that consciously, but it sounds awfully close to antisemitism so it should give people pause. Instead of the mechanations of capital expressing itself through imperialism and an intersection of interests being at fault, it’s instead a small group of people pulling the strings of geopolitics with their sneaky trickery - and they happen to be Jewish.
When talking of leverage in this instance, what is meant is personal leverage. As in Israeli intelligence has blackmail material on prominent us politicians.
AIPAC money came from US politicians. Burning that bridge means Israel cuts itself off from the money needed to lobby for Israel’s interests in the US congress and senate. So, whose leverage is it then?
No clue, I don’t really subscribe to the theory, just felt like clarifying. I would assume it would still be Israel since we’re going with personal relations rather than national, but it seems like a gross oversimplification to say the US does what it does with Israel because of some vague blackmail. It also runs cover for US since it’s just “they don’t want to do it” with more steps.
I’m sure Mossad has kompromat on a lot of powerful Americans (at least if the Epstein connection is anything to go by), but I’m also sure the us would still do what it does even if they didn’t.
Israel doesn’t leverage on USA, it is an outpost and an extension of US geopolitical ambition, not too different from French Foreign Legion or Russia`s Wagner.
USA’s approval of Israel action should be perceived as transactional or ideological. Trump is the former and Biden is the latter.
Also, what kind of blackmail do people think they have that doesn’t prevent a sitting president to just declare a total embargo on the blackmailer’s country. like do people think that sexual crimes really impact a Us president`s career?
Makes Biden’s actions even more monstrous and blue MAGA look more unhinged. I never bought into that leverage angle that people were running with.
The whole ceasefire thing is a ruse. They are still attacking Palestinians, this is just a way to give trump a PR win and give IOF time to focus on different fronts of their expansionary goals. Very similar to saving TikTok, all a ruse to get young people to support him.
Operations against Palestinians are continuing in the West Bank unfortunately, but not in Gaza, and not at the scale before. The ceasefire in Gaza is not a ruse as of now (this can change in the future, I’ll explain in the next paragraph), it is continuing and the next hostage exchange is set to take place tomorrow. Four female Israeli hostages are set to be released in exchange for a large number of Palestinians.
The real question is how long the ceasefire will last, after the hostage exchanges are completed. If Israel will resume the genocide in Gaza or not. That is the question.
I’ve seen it somewhere here that it can be a ruse (the usual one), so they the hostages and then complain it wasn’t followed for one reason or another. And, well, claiming a serious violation by soldiers being released instead of civilians is following the playbook. And so is claiming the return of one particular person they very well know they killed months ago (didn’t record the name, sorry).
I guess what I mean by a ruse isn’t to say that the conditions in Gaza haven’t improved, but that the Israelis war crimes at large haven’t stopped even if operations in Gaza have lessened. I’ve seen a lot of tone around the subject that I think is over exaggerating the relief the ceasefire has provided while taking the spotlight off the ongoing fronts that Israel is still operating, like what is happening in the West Bank, or the 1000 violations of the ceasefire in Lebanon, or the bases being built in Syria.