Image is of the damage caused by an Iranian Kheibar Shekan ballistic missile in Israel, causing dozens of injuries.
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
If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.
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.
Interesting how the pendulum has swung the other was so far that the u.s is losing support in both Japan and Korea over the illegal attack on Iran regarding how Prime Minister Ishiba and President Lee aren't going to the NATO war crimes summit in the Hague.
Looks like the Pacific may be chosing peace over conflict unless there's more fucking meddling in the rights of those nations to charter their own fates.

Japan is probably extremely annoyed with the tarrif and trade negotiations and that informs how much they jump on the US train on other matters at the momment. Maybe they are a vassal state but not a VASSAL state and there is some hope for them. Since at least they are showing some stiff resistance to the US saying "blow up your ailing economy and industry completely for america and trump". At least way more than what the germans and british are showed and show
Vassals are vassals because their patron gives them (usually just their ruling class) a good deal. The vassal - patron relationship needs to have a degree of mutualism. That's particularly the case if the vassal has a lot of independent power. Japan has 120 million people with high GDP PPP per capita and the world's 4th or 5th largest economy. That is not someone who you can approach all stick, no carrot. If the cost is high enough and the leadership can think long-term enough, they will look elsewhere.
You are correct but there have to be other historical, geographic and even cultural factors taken into account if one is to explian how vassals of similar economic scale and size like Canada, UK or Germany , that on paper should actually have more independent power and policy making vs the US relative to Japan, seem more willing to eat shit and die on America's directive.
Japan's proximity to the emerging dominant superpower in China and their much greater economic entaglement. A collective trauma from the plaza accords informing theor strategy now. A historicaly more nationalist and sovereign minded view of themselves and cultural attitude. The actual total war and surrender they "suffered" purely in the hand sof the US and the following occupation. Maybe the fact that they werent the ground zero nearly as much gladio and CIA activity compared to some European countries for most of the post war period. Maybe with the LDP being a one party state and the constitution being US written their political development in recent decades saw less of an industry of US led think tank/ngo politician incubation and training. In general the fact that the US is in Asia but isnt of Asia. The region and japan may have a more historicaly continuous collective memory, cultural and ethnic dynamics, national relations, spheres of influence etc etc spanning hundreds if not thousands of years. Being without the US as the major player and hegemonic power isnt something that alien or disqualifyingly uncomfortable
All totally correct. Adding on a bit more, I'd argue that the UK, US, and Canada are, in practice, one continuous imperial polity reconfigured but largely uninterrupted from the British Empire. NATO is the effort to enfold all of Europe into that empire. The North Atlantic is kind of like "what if the Holy Roman Empire was big enough to dominate the entire planet", with a military command tying everything together but full of nominally sovereign states who want to flex it as far as they can manage.