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.
Obama 2.0 dropped
629 days of livestreamed extermination and this is who I am supposed to be celebrating?
US cultural hegemony and liberal zionism are scourges.
“Obama 2.0” this must be a joke?
The video you shared is a short form answer for an extremely liberal audience to win an election. He already has clarified his public stance on Israel as having the right to exist only as a state with equal rights for all. To any leftist hearing that, you should immediately know he is saying Israel as we know it CANNOT exist. He is very obviously not a Zionist if you look at all at his history of organizing.
Touting the endorsement of an extremely popular politician in your home city to win an election is not the dig you think it is. Why on earth would he denounce her endorsement if he’s actually interested in winning?
Increasing funding for hate crime prevention does NOT just include for antisemitism. Also we should want increased funding for prevention of antisemitism and all hate crimes. Am I missing something here?
You’re pointing out a singular deleted tweet of his, being highlighted by a right wing grifter Twitter account, when he still has things like this up on his Twitter.
And what is he supposed to do? Endorse vandalism?
Please be serious. This is an embarrassingly poorly read post. I swear to god some people ostensibly on the left think it’s more important to do nothing wrong than it is to actually do something right and make some progress.
Have you considered the material reality that seeing a leftist on a late-night show scream, “Death to Amerikkka! Unlimited First World Genocide,” Would be really funny?
Ok but if his mayoral campaign tanks he should just say it
Maybe he’s waiting until he’s mayor before he starts posting slammer memes
“Increased funding for hate crime prevention” means increased policing, because currently in the US the only “prevention” for hate crime is policing. Any increase to policing, and any moves to put the “safety” of marginalized people into the hands of the police, is violence.
Edit: I recommend Dean Spade’s Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, & The Limits of the Law for a really good analysis of the way that “hate crime” laws and hate crime policing are dangerous ways to deflect from real justice, and also serve to increase the amount of violence that marginalized people face.
He wants to hire social workers and expand the social safety net, not increase police funding. Please at least attempt to familiarize yourself with the material you are discussing before making sweeping statements about it
What a goon, social workers are cops too, but sure quote Mao when someone disagrees with you because disagreement can only arise if someone doesn’t investigate. Obviously you’re the only person who knows anything and you’re always right, so until we reach your conclusions we must just not have studied hard enough
Call me crazy, but funding hate crime prevention and expanding the social safety net is good, actually. To call social workers cops as if they are truly one and the same is so fucking disingenuous it’s almost unbelievable. Yeah, sending in the guy with a degree in deescalation to settle a dispute is exactly the same as sending in an armed thug with a gun and anger issues.
Please say you are not serious.
I think every victim of the still on-going scoop of Indigenous children in North America would definitely agree that social workers are cops (not to mention the way they work with and alongside cops to intervene in people’s lives in a way that disproportionately impacts disabled, queer, and racialized people and often imposes rules on them that are not required by the normative population with the fatal threat of withdrawing what little supports that exist).
I would actually say “hate crime prevention” is not a good thing, because I don’t agree with the framing of hate as something to be intervened in through the racist, violent, oppressive criminal justice system of America which inflicts the very things it is being purported to prevent. When you use a framework of “hate crime” you are relegating safety and justice to the halls of the administrative, judicial, and policing systems of a fascist settler-colony. Don’t be ridiculous.
Now if you wanted to learn more about why I said these things, I actually mentioned a book with a great analysis of this, but of course you won’t read it before ridiculing me because you don’t need to investigate anything before speaking, right? Shill for your politician all you like, but no one is obligated to agree with you, nor is someone who disagrees with you deserving of ridicule “comrade”
Don’t get it wrong, I totally understand the punitive justice system is not how you deal with hate crime, but dispute mediation is actually a serious tangible improvement over the current solutions we currently have in hand like sending an armed cop. I don’t think the solution is the carceral system, but I think that it’s a hell of a lot easier to fundamentally change how the carceral system functions and what it’s goals are when the people we actually task at restorative justice projects aren’t literal cops and are trained in how to do restorative justice. I also think that a mayor who is at least a democratic socialist will be far more amicable to working to dismantle the worst parts of the carceral system than, I don’t know, literally any of the other options we have on the table. We do actually get to vote, whether or not the candidate is perfect, and there will be a mayor, whether or not they are perfect. I at least want a mayor that understand materialism and can normalize the idea of socialism while doing what is possible short of an actual proletarian revolution to take the boot off of the neck of the working class.
There are conditions I’d rather organize in, and it isn’t under literal mayor cop Eric Adams. To call what I’m doing “shilling” is funny because I’d rather “shill” to get a democratic socialist elected and give my community a nucleus to organize around than “shill” for ideological purity when there will be a mayor regardless. It might as well be a better mayor if it’s possible. I’d rather not sit tethered to a lead and not test the limits of how far I can push improving conditions short of the actual revolution.
Okay, we call Kamala a cop for her role in administrative violence against marginalized people, and social workers often collaborate with cops or outright bring them along in the cases I’ve had the particular pleasure of being on the end of the stick. While I would say I’d prefer dealing with them instead of the Blackshirt, I would also rather deal with the polite poc cop than the skinhead with a Blue Lives Matter punisher tattoo.
I 100% agree with everything you said, and in short what I said in a reply elsewhere is that reform is not the end game answer, but if I have the ability to put somebody in a position of power who is legitimately amicable to reform, I might as well do it to get the boot off the neck. No good is coming from a mayor actively collaborating with ICE, at least some good might come from a mayor who replaced cops with social workers and decreased the direct capacity of armed officers to do harm both socially and physically
Yea i don’t think Obamna would’ve ever said Israel should be a secular state, always a Jewish state.
Edit: I think it’s best to wait (assuming he wins general) before casting judgement.
Let’s see what he materially does when he’s in office. Too early to tell.
If you are US American or Canadian: yes. If you aren’t either of those: let it rip.
Past revolutionaries did much dirtier things to gain and retain power than Zohran refusing to tank his campaign by quieting his tone in order to win an election and actually have the power to positively effect his community. His approach to the genocide has impressed me more than the PRC’s has, as one example (given the respective context of each entity).
Agree, it sucks that he has to walk back the public presentation of some of his principles in order to win. That’s politics, it’s fucking dirty even when you’re the “good guy”. It is even true of non-electoral politics to some extent. You do what you need to do to gain power, and once you can wield it effectively with the support of those you represent, you have more freedom to actually be a leader.
Nothing wrong with being outraged about the ongoing genocide, ofc. Zohran is hopefully the first of many, and he has proven that support for Palestine (which he does, even if his public presentation of that has been modified for purposes of winning a campaign) does not permanently tank you forever in your political career. This is good, Zionism in the U.S. still holds strong, but is quickly eroding. At this point, the more they ask him about it, the faster it erodes; we have the upper hand and that should be celebrated.
Crazy to call Zohran a Zionist when he so obviously isn’t. Aside from his history of pro-Palestinian organizing, he has proudly and openly said he’d arrest Netanyahu if he came to NYC. Where else are we hearing anti-Israel rhetoric anywhere in the U.S. that approaches that from somebody who holds a level of power similar to mayor of NYC?
As we all know, Obama would totally have arrested Netanyahu
I mean what’s also important is that regardless of how some people pick apart his representation online, he’s still perceived by the public as an anti-zionist radical which is the actually important part because he is winning! That’s a huge W for anti-zionism, even IF he had to make some compromises along the way. It paves the way for Zohran 2 to be even more outspoken a few years from now
you’re right, we should scrap the entire thing and give up
The dialectical relationship between your post and the post immediately before it by a few minutes is really giving peak hexbear
I’m surprised we’re doing this dance again, I thought we were free after Bernie and AOC show their true colors
The Third-Worldists feeling justified as we Amerikkkans once again argue over electoralism.
Imagine being from the global south and evaluating the revolutionary potential of the American proletariat. Brutal
I’m blanket pinging everyone in this subthread to note this post. go as
as you want in this subthread (as long as people are respecting the sidebar code of conduct) but please don’t make a pattern of doing zohran electoralism struggle sessions in the newsmega.
@LoveYourself@hexbear.net @mkultrawide@hexbear.net @very_poggers_gay@hexbear.net @Muinteoir_Saoirse@hexbear.net @CoolerOpposide@hexbear.net @spectre@hexbear.net @OnceUponATimeInWeHo@hexbear.net @MizuTama@hexbear.net @DengistDonnieDarko@hexbear.net @Jabril@hexbear.net @hellinkilla@hexbear.net @Bakzik@hexbear.net @OnceUponATimeInWeHo@hexbear.net
If I never have to see him again it would be a blessing.
what does
mean?
It refers to the reply lines on the left hand size of the page. Look at one of the subthreads with a million replies and you’ll see what I mean.
In this context it means struggle your heart out in this subthread but let’s not let the news mega get swamped by American electoralism
If you scroll down you’ll see the colors buildup in the replies as people respond to each other. Basically that is an indication of a struggle session as the lines on the left hand side build up showing how deep the conversation has gotten. Right now my response should be on the green layer so we aren’t
yet.
Ah I see. It is all the way to purple as of at least 38 mins ago.
o7
Would love an explanation as to why you believe he should say he won’t fight antisemtism.
We all know that more money for police to “combat antisemitsm” really means something else.
He said he would fight antisemtism by funding a general hate violence prevention program (not one specifically targeted at antisemtism). What exactly was he supposed to say, in your opinion? Antisemtism isn’t real, or that it shouldn’t be combatted?
I think there are fair reasons to be critical or skeptical of Zorhan, but I think there are fairer critiques than holding him to task for not going on Colbert and saying “death to israel” or tweeting
in response to the DC incident.
In the endlessly propagandized, MSM-watching, treatlerite world run by the brainwashed and complicit masses, stories of a muslim American politician being as uncompromisably anti-zionist and anti-israel as it gets is practically calling for political (or actual) assassination.
Yeah imagine, they might call him an antisemite
It doesn’t matter what type of “hate crime” you are trying to prevent via policing. Increased funding for policing and putting the safety of marginalized people into the hands of police is violence. There is nothing progressive in the least about increasing hate crime funding, when the entire criminal justice system is a network of violence and oppression against the marginalized people who are supposed to somehow be safer through more police interaction.
Edit: I recommend Dean Spade’s Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, & The Limits of the Law for a really good analysis of the way that “hate crime” laws and hate crime policing are dangerous ways to deflect from real justice, and also serve to increase the amount of violence that marginalized people face.
Cool. Surely Zohran has said something about this funding going towards increased policing then right?
Oh wait he hasn’t? He said it’d go to social workers and social programs? Alas, I’m already mad about something I invented in my head
Social workers often work as arms of policing, actually. They are responsible for further entrenching the authoritative violence of America’s racist systems into the families of marginalized people, and are responsible for literally stealing children in many cases. They hold the power of life and death over marginalized people and work intimately with cops.
Edit: I get it, he’s your pet politician that you worked for, but he’s still a democrat, get over yourself.
He has been clear that the 800% increase in funding is not going to policing. They are non-police anti hate violence programs.
He has been clear that he is going to “defund the police” by explaining what that actually means instead of using the slogan. He will not be decreasing the officer headcount, but otherwise everything else is on the table according to his campaign (no increase to headcount or funding, reductions in overtime spending, reductions in equipment spending, no increase or possible decrease to overall budget).
Hate crime prevention by its nature goes to policing, that is why they use the language “crime” and focus on criminalization, rather than justice (the networks of policing include far more than just officers on the streets)
Ok, it’s fine to say “Zohran’s plan to reduce hate crime by increasing funding to non-police programs by 8x will be ineffective because he is not sending the police more funding and that’s the only way” as your opinion
But to say “Zohran is giving the police funding to reduce hate crime” is not correct.
I mean what are we doing here anyway? did we just leave socialism at the door? do we not generally agree that more habitable conditions for the working class, and a reduction in economic and social equality will reduce crime and other anti-social behavior across the board? or is it only the police who can reduce hate crime? It’s not a take I expected on this site, but maybe I’m the one who has it wrong?
https://archive.is/IfGMV
No but I’m already mad that he wants to hire more cops and increase policing because I made it up, and I am such a principled leftist that naturally I didn’t actually take the time to understand the policies I am arguing against
My bad I didn’t mean to respond to you.
Oh idk if you were responding to me but I just wanted to be funny in my reply
Thank you for clarifying 🙏
Its not hard to say death to israel.
lol
So your argument is that antisemtism shouldn’t be combatted?
Zionist talking point.
Is antisemtism a real thing?
Removed by mod
https://angrywhitemen.org/category/topics/antisemitism
deleted by creator
It would be very funny if his version of combating antisemitism was to separate zionism from judaism.
Spot the difference:
This person is jewish | this person is a zionist
You are obviously unfamiliar with Zohran’s campaign. Nowhere in any of these posts or anywhere in his history or anywhere in his campaign has he said to hire more cops to fix this. The campaign promise was to hire more social workers.
You are literally making something up to be mad about. He did not say he wants to hire cops to combat antisemitism. He said he wants to increase funding for hate crime prevention.
“A peaceful event to retrieve the hostages at any cost to Palestinian lives”
Leaving a comment here. I want to come back to this post in a few months-years.
Comrades, we are materialistic. There is more chances that this guy bends the knee to the hegemonic power than really pushing socialist laws (more close to the SPD than Bolchevisk use of the capitalist state power).
We also know how the USA operates when we talk of progressive politicians (not even socialist ones).
I wish him and his supporter the best. But, comrades, be materialistic, don’t be idealistic.
It was a materialistic campaign. The entire focus was on improving the material conditions of New Yorkers. It won’t be a red terror, it’ll be an improvement of material conditions to allow the working class to better organize. Free childcare is really one of the major cornerstones here
Just don’t become a “fundido” when the time comes.
Best wishes from the “third world”.
Of course, we have infinite reasons to be pessimistic, but isn’t there a point where the skepticism - even if we think it is based on material or intellectual analysis - becomes its own stumbling block?
Like Gramsci said, our intellect drives us towards pessimism, but our will makes us optimists. What is the point of doing anything if we let all the reasons to be pessimistic rule our life? Left movements require the will to be optimistic, to not erase the parts of us that are idealist, because without those we would be crushed by the weight of what we fight against.
Think about the world where Gramsci wrote that.
Be optimistic, sure. But don’t be idealistic, is not the same.
It would be cool if he’s the real deal, a first step for something bigger.
But he’s also in the belly of the beast. Same for the CPUSA and the SPA in the 30’, in a world where the URSS was still an horizon for the proletariats of the world. Now, putting all your eggs in the basket of electoralism drove to the winning of Roosevelt and the subsequent repression of the leftist parties and the workers movement. Not the ally a lot of them thought.
AOC and Berni are closer examples, they were also idealized in the ol’ CTH subreddit (not by everyone, of course). And, even when you cited the time where Parenti warned us about Bernie, a lot of people jumped the defend an obvious imperialist.
Just don’t idealize democrat figures as saviours (just don’t idealize in general). Have optimism, of course. But also comprehend that it doesn’t mean you should “jump on the granade” for them, don’t follow them blindy.
He’s no Lenin in 1905, the proletariat is no the same as 1905 (or 1917). But we both know where bourgeoisie electoralism can drive us to. And we need to be prepared for that, no surprises.
deleted by creator
(Video is AOC struggling to condemn the child-killing zionist cancer)
More Zionist American socialist politicians of colour 👏👏
“I believe absolutely in Israels right to exist”
I’ve heard enough
Its not hard to say death to israel. Even a child can say it.
I wish people understood more what liberal zionism is and the danger it poses.
…
…
Sorry, you could never be elected in the Nazi state being honest like that
Electoralism wont liberate Palestine and its disturbing to me that it is being marketed as such.
Rehabilitate Democrats.
Rehabilitate America.
Rehabilitate Israel.
Good luck to the people in New York City i just wish it wasnt also blasting to the rest of like it means anything.
I read all that and it more or less fits with my understanding but it’s always good to get a better understanding of how this demon entity operates. I don’t know how people can defend a country doing genocide. I’ve been real black pilled post Oct 7
Amber.
You are dense. He is doing dog whistles for the left and you are sticking you fingers in your ears.
I don’t think it’s wrong to criticize him for only sounding dogwhistles when the situation is as dire as it currently is for Palestinians. There isn’t really a winning move for Zohran (and this is the case for leftists trying to win electoral victories instead of using elections as promotion), though, either he uses all the appropriate rhetoric and loses, or he dogwhistles and has to compromise his real position.
Trying to win an election means you have to compromise and conceal your actual views and aims. That might be a justified cost, but it’s still something worth criticizing and keeping in mind.
Yeah imagine if he actually supported the destruction of Israel, he might be called an antisemite 😱
Block me please.
No?
zionism is anti semetic