Image is of legal adviser to Israel's foreign ministry Tal Becker and British jurist Malcolm Shaw at the ICJ hearing.
The ICJ case against Israel might not achieve much for the Palestinian cause directly, given that Israeli politicians have explicitly stated that the Hague will not stop them - and I believe them. The Resistance will be what stops them, and they are doing quite well for themselves. Hezbollah has hit highly sensitive and important Israeli military sites over the last couple weeks, and in general persist in several border attacks every day. The battles in Iraq and Syria also continue. Hamas remains largely intact, and is successfully forcing Israeli forces in the northern Gaza Strip to retreat, and other parts of the Gazan Resistance are continuing to battle down in Khan Yunis. And, last but not least, Yemen is firmly dedicated to the blockade, warding off another ship literally minutes before I started writing this paragraph.
What the ICJ is battling over isn't Palestine and Israel - not really - but the legitimacy of international law itself, and to what degree victimized countries can rely on it to solve problems, versus needing to take more militant routes for justice. In a weird sense, it might be an L for Israel either way. If international law sides with Palestine, then when Israel refuses to stop, it will invalidate international law. If international law sides with Israel, then it will invalidate international law. There is no conceivable way for the West to come out of this looking good.
The South African portion detailing Israeli atrocities against Gaza was largely ignored by the western media. They have instead, obviously, decided to focus on the Israeli portion. Their defense appears to amount to "We didn't do it, Hamas did it. And if we did do it, it doesn't matter, because that's just urban warfare for you. Please get this whole thing thrown out on a very dubious technicality so we don't have to advance to the next stage."
From Craig Murray, who has been physically going to the Hague:
It is important to realise this. Israel is hoping to win on their procedural points about existence of dispute, unilateral assurances and jurisdiction. The obvious nonsense they spoke about the damage to homes and infrastructure being caused by Hamas, trucks entering Gaza and casualty figures, was not serious. They did not expect the judges to believe any of this. The procedural points were for the court. The rest was mass propaganda for the media.
...I am sure the judges want to get out of this and they may go for the procedural points. But there is a real problem with Israel’s “no dispute” argument. If accepted, it would mean that a country committing genocide can simply not reply to a challenge, and then legal action will not be possible because no reply means “no dispute”. I hope that absurdity is obvious to the judges. But they may of course wish not to notice it…
What do I think will happen? Some sort of “compromise”. The judges will issue provisional measures different to South Africa’s request, asking Israel to continue to take measures to protect the civilian population, or some such guff. Doubtless the State Department have drafted something like this for President of the court Donoghoe already.
I hope I am wrong. I would hate to give up on international law. One thing I do know for certain. These two days in the Hague were absolutely crucial for deciding if there is any meaning left in notions of international law and human rights. I still believe action by the court could cause the US and UK to back off and provide some measure of relief. For now, let us all pray or wish, each in our way, for the children of Gaza.
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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 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.
Kuwait and Qatar are diverting their shipments of oil and LNG because of Houthi attacks. That accounts for some 17% of Europe’s LNG supply, just as it is shaping up to be a biting winter in Europe.
Remember last year when libs said the winter was mild and the energy crisis was nothing more than a nuisance? This is the kind of unpredictability that makes it unsustainable for long-term industrial investment and planning.
And of course the US is reaping all the benefits from the Red Sea attacks that further cements European deindustrialization, with all the cheap skilled labor emigrants when Ukrainian Nazis start doing terrorism inside European countries themselves.
i've been meaning to ask this, so i humbly use your comment, if i may: why are we expecting Ukrainian nationalists/partisans to commit terrorism within Europe? why wouldn't they strike within occupied Ukraine, or in Russia? whatever feelings of betrayal there are (frankly i don't really buy that the West should be seen as leaving the Ukrainians high and dry, though that's easy to say from my safe perch), wouldn't it make more tactical/strategic sense to strike at their occupier enemies?
As pointed out, because of a history of similar blowback where the West gives weapons to a violent reactionary group that ends up using those same weapons against their former ally. Also, Ukrainian nazis have hinted at the possibility of a "stab in the back" narrative if they don't get what they want. Even himself made threats towards Europe last year.
Of course none of this is a guarantee that things will happen, but it wouldn't be surprising. If at some point Europe decides that they're no longer willing or able to give them aid, these nazis could pull shit to try and scare them into continuing aid. When you give weapons to nazis, don't be surprised when they come back to terrorize you if they feel abandoned and betrayed.
How are they going to get into the Donbass Republics or Russia?
There may be some sympathizers behind the enemy line but you can’t exactly get into Russia without a strict background check, you know, especially for former combatants and those who are associated with fascism (you know they love their tattoos, which can be instantly identified).
It’s the same reason that most of the 9/11 hijackers (who had participated in Afghanistan or in the Second Chechen War against Russia) were already residing in Europe and America and having free access to America through various visa programs.
In other words: Europe is openly welcoming and celebrating the Nazis, so why exactly wouldn't they go there?
Due to history of blowback. Why did the mujahideen turn on the US? Al-Qaeda? Historically America's reactionaries often come back to bite them
It depends on the context of how the war ends realy.
If the war had ended back in April 22 with those negotiations then this would not be a valid prediction at all. But now the west has made promises, ideological statements that they can't easily turn back on politicaly.
Because turning back on Ukraine would mean admitting they're genocidal Nazis all over again, that they shouldn't have supported them etc. All those articles from '14-18 describing Ukrainian far right nazi problem are still there.
So how is the war ending? The most logical conclusion imo is NATO/Poland/Coalition of the "willing" peacekeepers invading western Ukraine pretending the war will continue and that NATO will still defend them while meanwhile the reality is Russia may continue this campaign for another 5-10 years and eventualy get to Odessa and Kiev. At that point Ukraine wont "exist" as a sovereign nation anyway and the Nazis would all have died.
But if this doesn't happen and NATO realy does give up entirely and let the war continue and Russia wins more ground for the next 5 years then the Nazis should strike at the west because their only tactic left will be this blowback bargaining chip.
The Nazis continue to threaten the west because Ukraine is a martyr for western values and this is a political red line for this entire EU political class. If Ukraine turns back on them it means Russia "won" and this is just political suicide. For now I wouldn't expect the Nazis to break this bargaining chip.
So the only other expected outcome is the EU is forced to abandon Ukraine through economic and public pressure and then the Nazis realize there is no bargaining chip advantage anymore.
I’m a bit of a contrarian, I don’t think there will be terrorist attacks in Europe by Ukrainians. I DO think there will be a bunch of Azov Battalion guys and others like them who will declare an openly Neo-Nazi nation within Ukraine, which will either exist as a rogue state or eventually subsume what is left of Ukraine.
In addition to what everyone else has said: the US will order them to. As Europe is forced to deindustrialize and implement even more austerity, there will be a popular reaction - both from the left demanding fewer cuts, more government investment, humane treatment for immigrants and refugees etc. and from the right demanding an end to immigration, even more austerity and tax cuts for the rich, rollback of LGBT and womens' rights, you know, the usual.
The US will heavily fund the latter, while suppressing, intimidating and killing the former just as it did after WW2 in Gladio, the strategy of tension and the years of lead. Ukrainian nazis and mercs have been the go-to for years for all kinds of US ops (here's a photo of an Azov guy eventually wounded on the front (lol rekt) posing in Hong Kong where he was at the """pro-democracy""" protests for... some reason) so once they're even more desperate and fanatical they'll make the perfect terrorist stooges.