So uh

A while ago I saw posts that said "The resistance is using the sound of crying babies to lure in IOF soldiers because they know that IOF soldiers love murdering babies" and just earlier I saw a post on twitter that said "The IOF is using the sound of crying babies next to auto-turrets to lure in empathetic Palestinians who want to save helpless children"

Zionazis undeniably love murdering kids and these technically aren't mutually exclusive but it still kinda feels like a Parenti quote moment.

Gaza Strip: Israel Releases 150 Detained Palestinians

In recent weeks, Palestinian authorities and non-governmental organizations have accused Israel of torturing those arrested in Gaza, many of whom are transferred to unknown locations.

On Tuesday, Israeli security forces released 150 Palestinians captured during their offensive against the Gaza Strip, amid reports of torture and ill-treatment of detainees.

The General Authority for Crossings and Borders reported in a brief statement that they were released at the Kerem Shalom crossing, near the triple demarcation line between Gaza, Egypt and Israel.

Israel has detained more than 8,000 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the current cycle of violence on 7 October, but the number in the Strip, under attack and under siege since then, is unknown.

In recent weeks, Palestinian authorities and non-governmental organizations have accused Israel of torturing those arrested in Gaza, many of whom are transferred to unknown locations.

Recently, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor denounced sexual violence and inhumane treatment of female prisoners by the army in the coastal enclave.

The group documented testimonies of mistreatment of women both on the ground and in the country's prisons.

The recently released detainees reported beatings, threats of rape if they did not comply with orders, and how they were forced to strip naked and subjected to strip searches, he said.

Several were tied up and blindfolded for long periods, detained in open cages in freezing conditions and without food or medicine.

The Monitor noted that they were constantly threatened with deprivation of seeing their children and had money and items taken from them at the time of their arrest.

Hizbullah’s attack today against a covert IDF military reconnaissance HQ in Arab al Aramshe, which reportedly resulted in 18 casualties so far, is a qualitatively superior and escalatory response to Israel’s assassination of Hizbullah fighters yesterday. It’s also a crucial message to Israel and its allies that if they choose to expand the conflict by striking Iran and Hizbullah, it won’t just be confronting Iran’s conventional military force, but a hybrid response. Despite the current fixation on analysing Iran’s conventional military capabilities vis-a-vis Israel, today’s attack serves as an important reminder that Israel and its allies will be facing an unprecedented hybrid coalition of actors which have superior asymmetric capabilities should this war expand.

Isra Hirsi (Ilhan Omar’s daughter) was just suspended from Columbia for being part of the pro-Palestine protest.

BREAKING: US House approves $60.8 billion in aid for Ukraine, $26.4 billion for Israel and $8 billion for Taiwan

BREAKING: US House has approved a bill banning TikTok in the country if ByteDance refuses to divest

protestors shut down the golden gate bridge for gaza

bird site link sry

CPUSA, through its party's media apparatus People's World, continues to take the ultra-left position of condemning all opposition to American hegemony as it first did against Russia by condemning Iran's anti-imperialist work against Israel through platforming the Tudeh Party of Iran's article.

Iran’s theocratic government is not anti-imperialist BY NAVID SHOMALI

The world has well and truly entered a dangerous epoch, with humanity currently facing a series of interconnected existential threats. A sharply deteriorating situation around the world of poverty, exploitation, and social injustice; “forever” conflicts that could very easily escalate into nuclear war; a looming climate catastrophe by 2030; as well as the exponential increase in ultra-nationalism and ethno-sectarianism and the entailing rise once more of fascism—all of them together represent a mere snapshot of the multi-dimensional crisis which humanity now faces.

The sheer level of brutality waged against the defenseless, and indeed blameless and innocent, Palestinian civilians by Israel’s war machine, along with the propensity of various governments and institutions in the U.S., Britain, and the E.U., hand in glove with the narrative put out by mainstream media outlets in the West that has shamelessly attempted to justify or normalize Israel’s genocidal campaign, is the foremost example of the terrible threat posed to the future of humanity and the international rules and rights-based consensus that followed the end of the Second World War.

We bear witness, with alarm, to so-called liberal democratic governments and “free” media agencies consciously aligning themselves with ultra-right forces in Israel’s ruling circles that openly profess apartheid, even fascistic, politics.

The aforementioned threats are almost all rooted in the ever-deepening crisis of capitalism, compounded by four decades of imposed neoliberalism and its resounding failure, and the desperate attempts by U.S. imperialism to uphold its weakening hegemony, regardless of what this might portend for humanity.

So far sounds nice, but here's where the break in opinions begin to occur.

Thus, it is now vital for the left and a wide spectrum of progressive forces domestically and internationally to form alliances that effectively mobilize to counter the threat posed by U.S. imperialism and its allies. Such alliances depend on the setting of clear and achievable progressive objectives based on class-conscious politics at local, national, and international levels.

Here's a fundamental question for anyone here, what material power does the "left and a wide spectrum of progressive forces domestically and internationally" have? Let me underline this absurdity with the apocryphal tale on Stalin and Christianity: When he was asked to ease the persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union in order to strengthen diplomatic ties and possibly strategically flip Pope Pius XII indifferent opinion towards nazi Germany, Stalin jovially said "hah! The Pope? How many divisions does he got?"

When examining today's world we must examine all parts of it in concrete terms and not on ethereal fantasies. What anti-imperialist alliance that exist today can make a material impact on the material world that doesn't just devolve into just yapping on zoom meetings about how bad something is.

Such a vital alliance cannot simply be comprised of an arbitrary and ad hoc collective of regimes, political forces, and paramilitary organizations united solely by their opportunistic—and often shallow—adversarialism to Washington. A glaring example of this flawed equation in process is the confusing of the forces of “political Islam” in the Middle East, which rail from a frighteningly reactionary perspective against Western culture and modernity, as principled anti-imperialist allies.

Here we see the common argument of the current ultra-left faction of the contemporary international marxist-leninist movement. An argument that has been fossilized since the end of the Second internationale during the first world war.

It is an argument couched on world-changing strength of the international labor movement of the time that had the power to topple empires.

Our concrete conditions today do not even reflect a shadow of that period.

You do not take as the starting point of your policy a series of theatrical gestures towards ethereal parties and beings who are revolutionary from head to foot instead of concrete human beings and the nations they reside in.

And foremost among these forces of “political Islam” falsely considered as anti-imperialist by some in left and progressive circles is the Islamic Republic regime in Iran. The reaching of this deeply flawed conclusion involves the convenient ignoring or pushing aside of that regime’s despotic material nature and horrific track record, while fundamentally misunderstanding or misrepresenting its destabilizing, malevolent, and sectarian posturing regionally and internationally.

How many missiles have you launched at the IDF in support of the PLFP?

It is important to note that Iran’s foreign policies in the Middle East region, and consequently its extraterritorial military proxy activities, are predicated on Shia sectarianism and Ayatollah Khomeini’s exhortation to “export the Islamic Revolution.” Aside from running wholly contrary to Iran’s national interests as well as wantonly endangering the Iranian people, this policy bent has proved deeply divisive and unpopular throughout the region and has always manifested to the major detriment of secular, particularly left and progressive, forces.

I shan't comment on Islamic religious or Iranian state policies as I have no academic knowledge on the field.

At every critical juncture in the region’s history over the past 40 years, the Islamic Republic has actively collaborated with U.S. imperialism—including in Afghanistan and Iraq. The theocratic regime’s empty posturing and crocodile tears shed for the plight of the Palestinians are exposed as just that when one considers how Iran has consistently worked to undermine the struggle of secular, left, and progressive Palestinian forces against Israel’s occupation.

Is countering u.s engineered virulant Wahhabism after its rampaged out of CIA control in conjunction with u.s, Iraqi, Syrian, kurdish, Russian forces, etc. really the condemnation they think it is?

Put simply, a truly anti-imperialist alliance cannot be crafted on the defunct logic that goes along the lines of “the enemy of my enemy is therefore my friend!”

The person writing this would rather have a pure anti-imperialist alliance that entirely exists on paper.

From a left perspective, rooted in the works of Marx and Lenin on class analysis and imperialism, the Iranian regime does not even come close to classifying as anti-imperialist—unless one is happy to omit its ever dwindling social class base inside Iran, the exploitative neoliberal political economy over which it presides, its total disregard for basic human rights and freedom, along with its continuing track record of horrific human rights abuses and brutal oppression (directed not least against the various forces that make up the Iranian left).

Yet again, to the ultra-left fence straddles, history ended with the death of Lenin and everything else that occured hitherto doesn't exist.

WW2? What's that? A wrestling competition?

The left forces in the Middle East, and especially in Iran, over the 40 years since the defeat of the popular anti-imperialist 1979 Revolution, have first-hand bitter experiences of “political Islam” and its devastating impact.

That does genuinely suck, no doubt about it. A communist guided Iran in infinitely preferred to the current Iran. But they failed and we have to work with what we got.

With heavy hearts, we recall how the popular 1979 Revolution was hijacked and derailed by the nascent theocracy and the people’s demands for true emancipation and social justice were scorned in favor of a parasitic capitalist class backed by the Islamist force.

See last statement.

We recall how women’s basic rights were trampled upon by the theocratic regime and how Iran’s women and girls were essentially consigned to, at best, second-class citizenry and placed at the mercy of crushing misogyny.

Also bad. That's a given.

And we recall that while Ayatollah Khomeini declared the devastating Iran-Iraq War to be a “blessing,” the Tudeh Party of Iran opposed its continuation beyond Iran’s liberating of its sovereign territory as an imperialist ploy to subvert the Iranian Revolution. As punishment for this—and to display its anti-communist credentials for all to see—the regime launched an unprecedented bloody attack upon the party based on the false premise it had spied for the USSR as well as fabricated “evidence” supplied by the CIA, MI6, and Pakistan’s ISI. Khomeini later referred to this help as “a divine act.”

Folks here's where history gets a bit interesting. During the Iran-Iraq War, both the United States and the NATO bloc AND the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact AND Yugoslavia diplomatically and materially backed Saddam's more secular Iraq, whereas the PRC, DPRK, Israel, the People's Republic of Yemen, Syria, Libiya, and Pakistan supported theocratic iran.

Besides stating the obvious in the fact it was a terrible war, what a bizarre network of supporters.

Mexico has told its citizens to leave Israel as soon as possible

“En caso de que alguna persona se encuentre actualmente en Israel, se sugiere programar su salida a la brevedad. Existen rutas comerciales disponibles para salir del país de forma segura. Las opciones de salida podrían limitarse severamente sin previo aviso, por lo que no es posible garantizar que habrá condiciones para una evacuación segura y expedita de personas mexicanas en el futuro”, enfatizó la cancillería.

“If anyone is currently in Israel, it is suggested that they schedule their departure as soon as possible. There are trade routes available to leave the country safely. Exit options could be severely limited without prior notice, so it is not possible to guarantee that there will be conditions for a safe and expeditious evacuation of Mexican people in the future,” the Foreign Ministry emphasized.

Well well what a coincidence https://thecradle.co/articles/isis-kills-palestinian-fighters-in-syrian-desert

Made the mistake of visiting AskLatinAmerica. Every Guatemalan on there is so bougie that I can smell Paseo Cayala from over here.

That sub is the place to go if you want to know what upper-class Latin Americans think. It’s pretty much the same as your average Redditor. Gave up on them after they compared AMLO to Bolsonaro.

Biden has the most hilarious family head canon:

His wife was killed by drunk driver (Here is that driver's full name, IP address, and photos of his house)

He doesn't know when his son died, but he died in Iraq

His uncle was eaten by cannibals

His family was poor during the Depression, his grandfather definitely wasn't a US Oil executive.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/politics/fact-check-biden-amtrak-grandfather-pittsburgh-bridge-debt/index.html

edit: Sorry, I have a lot of tabs, I meant to post this in the appropriate thread: https://hexbear.net/comment/4820267

Alright, Naked Capitalism has a piece on the Israeli attack last night. I mean, "attack" almost seems too strong a word, but I can't think of a better one.

Here's my summary of it:

• Still remarkably little clarity about precisely what happened, with various actors either purposefully not talking about it (or perhaps they just don't have much to say). Some US sources claimed that the attack was from Israel, and that Israel told the US that this attack would happen but the US had nothing to do with it.

• The attack was on Isfahan, in central Iran. Iran claims that there were a few (probably less than 10, possibly literally 3) drones and all were shot down, which visually seems to have been what occurred - no dramatic explosions beyond that of interceptions. Some anonymous US officials claimed that there were ballistic missiles involved, but there is no evidence of this at all - which is odd if it did occur, as the missile would have had to fly over a few countries at least.

• Iran briefly shut down its airports, did not close its airspace, and planes were still in the air above Iran, although some airlines redirected flights as news came in. Iran's response in general so far has been pretty muted, in stark contrast to their "Oh boy, if those Israelis even THINK about responding...!" rhetoric days and hours before the attack occurred. The official line is that this was an infiltration, not an external attack from Israel. This is a strange thing for Iran to do, and is naturally generating all sorts of theories about whether Iran has done some behind-the-scenes negotiating to allow a small Israeli attack despite officially denying it. I can't say I personally believe them but I'm also having trouble finding alternative explanations for the massive difference between rhetoric and action.

• The idea is that this was a diminished response from Israel in exchange for the US greenlighting an Israeli campaign into Rafah, which I'm sure will go well for them with the remaining tatters of whatever they're calling an "army" nowadays.

i was hoping for international proletarian revolution, but if it comes to it, i'll take getting to see tel aviv burn on twitter in the leadup to a nuclear exchange

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/iran-may-alter-nuclear-doctrine-amid-israeli-threats-to-nucl

To me, this is tacit admittance that Iran either already has nukes or is less than a month away from getting nukes. I don't think someone from the IRGC would say this unless they actually have nukes on the way.

Revealed: Israel has sped up settlement-building in East Jerusalem since Gaza war began | The Guardian

Exclusive: Government ministries and offices behind most contentious of projects, which will create thousands of housing units

All this talk about the imminent Israeli retaliation reminds me of the always just-around-the-corner Ukrainian ubermensch counteroffensive

The lead juror on one of the Trump cases was born in Ireland. TRUST THE PLAN 🇮🇪

I guess the most important development is that the Iranian government and media is downplaying this and saying nothing happened. I don't really buy it, given that there were simultaneous strikes within Iraq and Syria. but whatever happened seems to not be so significant that they want to retaliate and escalate into a war.

I don't really see what israel gets out of this. their hogs still want blood, they still want dead Iranians. does this minor strike on an airbase satisfy that? does it really accomplish anything militarily? what was the point?

Russian weapons help Iran harden defenses against Israeli airstrike

I've never read a more 'nothing' article. so many "could have bought" "no evidence" "no proof" "may have" "if delivered" "not publicly known". Putin give Iran S-400s coward.

Bombs and viruses: The shadowy history of Israel’s attacks on Iranian soil

Israel’s leaders have signalled that they are weighing their options on how to respond to Iran’s attack early Sunday morning, when Tehran targeted its archenemy with more than 300 missiles and drones.

Iran’s attack, which followed an Israeli strike last week on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, that killed 13 people was historic: It was the first time Tehran had directly targeted Israeli soil, despite decades of hostility. Until Sunday, many of Iran’s allies in the so-called axis of resistance — especially the Palestinian group Hamas, the Lebanese group Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and armed groups in Iraq and Syria — were the ones who launched missiles and drones at Israel.

But if Israel were to hit back militarily inside Iran, it wouldn’t be the first time. Far from it.

As Israel prepares its response, here’s a look at the range of attacks in Iran — from drone strikes and cyberattacks to assassinations of scientists and the theft of secrets — that Israel has either accepted it was behind or is accused of having orchestrated.

Iran has the right to defend itself

Apparently, Berlin pigs say you can only speak Deutsch in public events. Well, Deutsch and English lol:
https://nitter.poast.org/therockisdead_/status/1781005611234140634

Milei is requesting for Argentina to join NATO

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/argentina-asks-join-nato-president-milei-seeks-prominent-109402973

they've outlawed sharing videos of the flood that "ruin the reputation of the country". some private businesses still require workers to come to work even as people's cars literally drowned

It's election season in South Africa, which means white racists feel the need to be even more racist than usual. Paternalistic attitudes towards black people and accusations of black majority political parties buying votes are now the norm on social media.

https://twitter.com/TheKiffness/status/1780935320147558869

https://hexbear.net/post/2346509

This is what happens when colonialists realise that they can no longer control elections and government. Deranged racist screeds.

Here's a funny joke: What if, hypothetically, every U.S. politician were publically beheaded, on the same day, at the same time? Wouldn't that be funny? Hypothetically, of course.

An article published on ISNA in Farsi quotes a official saying:

• First 70 fighters and then with addition of fighters from Cyprus, 103 fighters
• 15 signal jamming aircrafts
• Their own AWACS plus AWACS from UAE and KSA
• 6 ships in Red Sea plus the six-layered anti-missile systems in KSA and UAE
• All missile defense capabilities of Israel

... were used to intercept the Iranian and the Resistance's drones and missiles.

He then said:

• Our intelligence reports had shown that Pentagon had accepted to lead the defense entirely
• CENTCOM had designated 8 regions for their missile defense plan; Caucasus, Zagros, Turkiye, Persian Gulf, Red Sea and Mediterranean.
• The Qatars advanced air defense systems were made fully available to them
• 10 countries were working against us
• The enemy had an advantage; they had became familiar with the Resistance's missile and drone systems during the al-Aqsa Flood operation, they knew all the weaknesses. But we weren't familiar with their advanced missile defense capabilities.
• At first we were planning to strike six political, economical and military targets but at end we decided to only strike military targets because we just wanted to punish them.
• OpSec didn't let the enemy know our main goal.
• Way less drones were used than what media claims; drones which took 7 hours to reach their target. These drones triggered 5 of 8 regions that enemy had designated; 80 percent of which were engaged in east Jordan. The drones were 100% successful because non of them were sent to demolish anything but to force the Iron Dome and David's Sling to engage them.
• After drones we launched missiles, 12 hypersonic missiles all of which hit their targets by the will of God.
• Khaibar Shekan ballistic missile were used.
• Cluster missiles challenged the second layer of the enemies air defense; each piece had to be engaged separately.
• Other missiles had success rate of 75%.
• We made sure the targets were hit by observing the satellites imagery, the cameras installed on the missiles and the local sources.
• Only Israel were supposed to be punished in this operation but other countries that joined it got punished.
• It shows the decency, dignity, humanity and greatness of our nation that we didn't target the Zionists' buildings.

(Read with grain of salt as always)

Edit: Source; full of typo hence not translation engine friendly.

Some quick thoughts on the Isfahan attacks:

• We don't know whether the attacks were successful or not. Iran claims to have shot down drones but the explosions were heard course to important military installations.
• The attacks were carried out by drones that went undiscovered until they were in the middle of Iran. This suggests that they were not launched from occupied Palestine but rather by western/zionist proxies within Iran.
• The zionists have not taken responsibility for the attack. They dare not make an open response, opposing instead to muddle responsibility behind layers of proxies.
• The attacks seems to be of much smaller scale than the recent sophisticated Iranian strikes against IOF terrorist training camps in occupied Palestine.
• All in all it doesn't come off as the convincing show of force that zionist chuds had hoped for. If anything it makes the zionists appear weak and afraid of picking a real fight against Iran. It seems like the attacks were the zionist regime's attempt at doing something that was spectacular enough to appease domestic audiences while also being inconsequential enough as not to provoke an Iranian retaliation.

Some interesting developments in the Russo-Ukrainian war for the map-brains:

• Near-encirclement and withdrawal of Ukrainian forces northwest of Donetsk city

• Deep Russian advance northwest of Avdiivka over the course of 4 days

• Krasnohorivka rapidly falling with seemingly minimal defense from the Ukrainians

• Rumors that some Ukrainian units are refusing to defend certain positions (eastern part of Chasiv Yar)

I don't think there have been any signs of major armored attacks by Russian forces. This is all happening with the usual "meat grinder" tactics as far as I can tell.

Blood is in the water, so to speak. If the Imminent Russian Offensive™ actually materializes, it could be very significant.

Meeting between Baerbock and Netanyahu became difficult, as did Cameron's with Katz. Baerbock reportedly recommended that Israel stop circulating the photos of life supposedly returning to normal in the Palestinian enclave “as they don’t portray the real situation in Gaza. There is hunger in Gaza.” At this point, Netanyahu is said to have raised his voice and insisted, “It’s real. It’s reality. It’s not like what the Nazis staged, we’re not like the Nazis who produced fake images of a manufactured reality.” According to the Channel 13 report, the German foreign minister responded, “Are you saying that our doctors in the field in Gaza aren’t telling the truth? Are you saying that the international media is lying?” Cameron told Katz UK not going to proscribe IRGC.

https://nitter.poast.org/patrickwintour/status/1781232914283237701#m

Ahmed Attaf Minister of Foreign Affairs of Algeria

⭕ Algeria's foreign minister: By decision of the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, we announce an exceptional provision of $15 million to UNRWA.

⭕ Algeria praises the withdrawal of a number of countries from freezing aid allocated to UNRWA

⭕ Our conviction remains firm that UNRWA must remain as long as there are Palestinian refugees

⭕ The two-state solution can never remain a hostage to the procrastination, evasions and manipulations of the occupier.

⭕ International legitimacy cannot remain imprisoned in the walls of this hall and trapped in the illusions and miscalculations of the occupier indefinitely.

⭕ The international consensus must find its way into force sooner rather than later through the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with Al-Quds as its capital.

Bonus Algerian news

Today, Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, President of the Republic, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and Minister of National Defense, chaired a meeting of the Supreme Security Council.

news doesn't mention what they're talking about

Us governments oks rafah invasion under the condition it doesn’t strike Iran and isn’treal still strikes Iran lmao wow we are truly a living joke