There were two “Reigns of Terror,” if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the “horrors” of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror—that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account.
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.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
The Country of the Week is Palestine! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
The weekly update is here.
Links and Stuff
The bulletins site is down.
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Add to the above list if you can.
Resources For Understanding The War
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.
Telegram Channels
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
Pro-Russian
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
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.
Last week's discussion post.
October 12, 2023 Rybar end of day sitrep
spoiler
❗️🇮🇱🇵🇸 Aggravation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict zone what is known by the end of October 12, 2023
The number of direct clashes on Israeli territory has decreased significantly: the battle took place in the area of Kibbutz Kisufim near the border with the Gaza Strip, where the Israel Defense Forces killed one Hamas militant. However, Palestinian groups continue to regularly fire rockets at southern and central Israeli settlements.
Meanwhile, IDF aircraft continue to level the Gaza Strip. Both Hamas facilities and many civilian buildings with civilians come under attack. The number of victims among the population of the enclave has reached 1.5 thousand people, while Israel continues the humanitarian blockade of Gaza. Apparently, the Israeli command is thus preparing for a ground operation in the sector.
In northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon, the situation also remains relatively stable. During the day, a Patriot air defense system falsely triggered, a shell from which fell on Lebanese territory near the village of Khiyam Marjayoun. In addition, the IDF stationed a significant number of previously mobilized reservists along the border with Lebanon, fearing an attack by Palestinian groups or Hezbollah militants.
In the West Bank, clashes between the Arab population and Israeli security forces continue. By evening, civilians were killed as a result of such incidents in the vicinity of Ramallah. In addition, there are increasing reports of clashes between Israeli settlers and Palestinians. Tomorrow, a sharp escalation of violence may occur in the region in connection with the traditional Friday worship of Muslims: Hamas is in advance agitating local Palestinians to attack the Israelis en masse.
Dang so have they been pushed out of Ashkelon? I know rockets are still firing but I had hoped for something bigger to come from it.
In asymmetric warfare, the insurgent force will always have the advantage of space and time over the occupier. A rebel group can choose where and when they fight, while the occupiers must be always alert, everywhere- if they aren't they get humiliated like what happened this weekend.
In my opinion, Palestine has already won this battle. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military equipment destroyed or captured, valuable prisoners taken including a general and several military intelligence officers (boy I would not want to be those guys right now lol), the settler population is utterly terrified and jumping at birds and howling for blood before the entire world, the myth of IDF invincibility has been shattered, and the Palestinian resistance has been emboldened in the long term by this resoundingly successful operation. There's no need to try to hold on to these other areas anymore besides to buy time for and harassments, they aren't trying to outright conquer Israel from the Gaza strip, they're trying to push the Zionist entity closer towards collapse.
Now Israel will try to destroy Gaza in retaliation, but these wars aren't won just by killing more of the enemy and taking territory. The resistance survives or dies on public opinion, and while western crackers cry their crocodile tears over dead settlers, the people of the Arab world have taken to the streets in an outpour of support and sympathy. It doesn't matter how many "terrorists" they kill in Gaza now, this day will not be forgotten by anyone in a long time, especially by the Palestinians. The IDF can try brutalize the population in submission, but it never works for long- not in Algeria, not in Vietnam, not in Nazi-occupied Europe. If they hunt down every Hamas member it won't matter, another resistance group will take their place because the Palestinian people will demand resistance against their ongoing destruction.
A key component of Zionist COIN was to try to foster division between Gaza, the West Bank, and "Israeli Arabs." And they have utterly utterly failed.
This response is a bit longer than I planned and isn't quite in response to you; it's just that your question made a few things that I've been thinking a bit clearer. I'll put it in spoiler tags so you can close it away :D
Armchair Analysis
They might not be trying to hold on to places. I'm in no real position to predict what will happen or say what the Palestinians are thinking but there do seem to be some advantages in letting Israel take certain places back (if that has happened).Trying to hold too much land could stretch Palestinian forces thinly. They would have an advantage if they dug in and had e.g. artillery to use against an attacking force. But they would still likely lose relatively quickly, given Israel's advantages. Unlike in Gaza, where it sounds like the land is prepared to make every meter incredibly costly for Israeli ground troops.
The more skirmishes they can start all over the place, the harder it will be for Israel to plan its resource distribution. It has to station troops everywhere, which undermines some of its advantages. Israel appears to be low on ammo and is requesting use of US (similarly low) reserves already. It's not even been a week. Israel has to keep adequate munitions throughout the whole of its territory at the moment. That could change if Palestine draws it into pitched battles.
The more that Palestine can lure Israel into depleting these stocks over a wide net, the fewer resources Israel will have against Gaza and the harder it will be (logistically) for Israel to keep re-supplying it's forces around Gaza. It takes effort, vehicles, drivers, fuel, etc, just to move things around. Palestine could send five men this way or that way to cause havoc and Israel has to expend resources sending enough munitions/soldiers to counter what could be (it won't know) a significant force.
In the meantime, 'ordinary' settlers won't know where's safe. And the more places that need emergency services at the same time, the less likely they'll be able to help and the sooner Israeli infrastructure will begin to collapse. Most countries (except socialist ones) struggle to deal with more than one disaster at once. I'm not talking militarily. I'm talking about the civil infrastructure ready to put out fires, ambulance the injured to hospitals, etc.
I can see Palestine holding on to more ground as the war continues. But only when it can reinforce the ground and after it's significantly weakened the Israeli forces. Whereas for now it seems like Palestine's offensive advantages are in its mobility and surprise.
It also means that Israel has a consistent, clear target – Gaza (and the area around it). Palestine's other advantage lies in luring Israel in that direction. Not just because Gaza will be far more costly to Israel than Ashkelon. But also because Palestinian organisers will know which direction Israel will be looking and marching for so long as they present Israel with no other major targets. That facilitates two possibilities. First, getting in the way of that march. Second, causing havoc behind it. Both of which will demoralise Israel.
Good analysis. Yeah I agree they probably aren't planning to hold territory in this phase, as it would be suicide. I think the rapid progress from the first two days got me thinking in terms of map brain. I just remember people theorizing that breaking open the prison in Ashkelon was an objective.
While there's only one front there's no real hope of taking territory. Whether the West Bank becomes a proper front or Hezbollah comes in through the north, I don't know but probably both of those things are the minimum requirements for Gaza succeeding.