Now in our second week of the conflict, we have seen continuing damage to both Israel and Iran, as well as direct US intervention which nonetheless seems to have caused limited damage to Fordow and little damage to Iran's nuclear program. Regime change seems more elusive than ever, as even Iranians previously critical of the government now rally around it as they are attacked by two rabid imperialists at once. And Iran's government is tentatively considering a withdrawal, or at minimum a reconsideration, of their membership to the IAEA and the NPT. And, of course, the Strait of Hormuz is still a tool in their arsenal.
A day or so on from the strike on Fordow, we have so far seen basically no change in strategy from the Iranian military as they continue to strike Israel with small barrages of missiles. Military analysts argue furiously - is this a deliberate strategy of steady attrition on Israel, or indicative of immense material constraints on Iran? Are the hits by Israel on real targets, or are they decoys? Does Iran wish to develop a nuke, or are they still hesitating? Will Iran and Yemen strike at US warships and bases in response to the attack, or will they merely continue striking only Israel?
And perhaps most importantly - will this conflict end diplomatically due to a lack of appetite for an extended war (to wit: not a peace but a 20 year armistice) or with Israel forced into major concessions including an end to their genocide? Or even with a total military/societal collapse of either side?
Last week's thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
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.
colombia was by far israel's largest source of coal, accounting for more than half their imports. when petro shut that off, i was among those who celebrated
months later, what changed? nothing
as a side point, it's also bizarre to me that people mention the sanctions against apartheid in south africa as proof that such a thing works. because they always fail to notice that, while jamaica started the whole thing, it was really america and their allies that did it. i feel pretty safe saying it would have never worked if the west hadn't joined the action
show me an example, just a single one, of sanctions actually working against a western country or one of their allies and i'll gladly change my mind. i'm not kidding, i'll start advocating for more action from china right away; it would be a fucking relief as it's far easier to do that from an emotional standpoint. as it stands, it makes absolutely no sense to me
You did not get the point.
Both China and South Africa are both key BRICS members.
Both China and South Africa are regional powers. China is obviously a global superpower.
Colombia is not a global leader, they're not a regional leader, in fact they're incredibly insignificant country with an incredibly insignificant economy. If you wanted to argue why would nobody take fucking Colombia's leadership its because Colombia offers nothing to anyone else.
China however had leverage with both Israel, the US, the EU and every other country in the region.
Coordinated effort from both of them could have been a lynchpin of a global resistance even by liberal standards .All of this was happening during the court cases and the UN meetings, they could have added pressure to this issue by adding the embargo. That was an opportunity that was missed.
However, I can concede your point, then why if Colombia could afford to be so principled and selfless China could not?
Like seriously, do you not understand how incredibly dumb you look by trying to make it look like China couldn't afford an embargo but backwater impoverished Colombia could? The global #1 economic industrial superpower couldn't imagine going 5 minutes without some garbage Israeli imports? Or the great CPC master plan includes something so precious that backwater Colombia can`t fucking understand?
Just stop, it is inexcusable and incredibly dumb. Pro-China shit went from "smol bean China will just get nuked" to "hmmm acshualy they shouldn't do it because it wouldn't matter anyway". As I often say stop fucking larping.
i didn't say china couldn't "afford" an embargo, you brain damaged chimpanzee
i literally said it's not about money, and that my country should do more while china couldn't, and explained why. somehow you managed to miss that within that black hole of stupidity inside your head and made it all about money again, how can someone be that bad at reading
i mean, whatever, this is all fucking moot anyway. you're gonna keep crying, i'm gonna keep saying you shouldn't, china is gonna keep developing, iran is still gonna stop before mutual destruction, and the empire will keep doing its thing until enough of the structural needles have moved that it's unable to. wanna feel like something is being done, then go protest if you live in the empire, that actually has a higher chance of working than some deluded dream of global embargo lmao