news

"Make no mistake: what is, has or will unfold in Gaza is purely an Israeli decision." - USMC commandant Gen. Eric Smith told reporters.

Nitter

I hadn't heard anybody in the MIC express it so directly.

Russia says it will build close ties with North Korea 'in all areas' (Reuters, 26th of October, 2023)

Russia said on Thursday that it planned to build close ties with North Korea in all areas, a day after South Korea, Japan and the United States condemned what they said were weapons supplies from Pyongyang to Moscow.

Asked about the accusation by the three countries, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “There are many such reports, they are all groundless as a rule, there are no specifics. Such reports have been around for a long time. We see no point in commenting on this.” He added: “North Korea is our neighbour and we continue and will continue to develop close relations in all areas.”

Pressed on whether weapons deliveries had taken place, Peskov said: “We don’t comment on this in any way.”

US forces and coalition troops attacked 10 times in Iraq, three times in Syria: Pentagon

Pentagon Press Secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder said “US and coalition forces have been attacked at least 10 separate times in Iraq, and three separate times in Syria via a mix of one way attack drones and rockets” between October 7 and 24.

During a news conference, he called the numbers “initial” and did not give information on injuries. He also did not confirm a attack on the Ain al-Asad base in Iraq, reported today by Reuters news agency.

“We know that the groups [who] conduct these attacks are supported by the IRGC [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps] and the Iranian regime. What we are seeing is the prospect for more significant escalation against US forces and personnel across the region, in the very near term coming from Iranian proxy forces, and ultimately from Iran,” he said.

“We are preparing for this escalation both in terms of defending our forces and responding decisively,” he said.

- Al Jazeera

Love to go on and see people argue that "In an ideal world Hamas and Israel would be equally opposed because they are both moral black holes."

Not that in an ideal world, Hamas would not exist because Israel would not be ethnically cleansing a population they put in a giant concentration camp, just that centrism would rule supreme in an ideal world.

And besides, who fucking chooses their degree of opposition based on "morality"? You wouldnt equally oppose the KKK and idk, the Manson family, because both want race wars, you oppose the KKK more because they have superior means and organization to perform actions in the service of that goal. Opposing the morality of a group is a thought exercise.

~~War is hell.~~

Relatively well is hell.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/24/world/middleeast/israeli-hostage-gaza-yocheved-lifshitz.html?smid=url-share

I was going to put this in the dunk tank because a leftist account quote tweeted it to dunk on her for saying "Im happy about it" re: a genocide and people in general are saying shit like "americans are so self centered, this isnt about elections" and "grifter taking the oppurtunity of a genocide to tell everyone she was right all along and settle twitter beefs".

But then i ran it by some friends to check to make sure I wasnt off base and they were saying "no its good that she's saying that people should have realized that Biden was bad all along"

So now I'm not sure because I have no confidence in myself to to CPTSD so I dont have my own opinions so Im wondering what people think? Thanks.

Oh the tweet: https://twitter.com/briebriejoy/status/1717976394234200250

Lmao Israel's diplomat is saying Guterres should resign

Speculation going around the USS Carney has no missiles. They allegedly fired off their entire anti-air payload when the Houthis attacked them. People are speculating that these platforms basically have a massive vulnerability to swaming tactics or just running out of ammunition.

Israeli forces raid Jenin

Israeli military forces are conducting a raid on Jenin, where they have clashed with Palestinian fighters in the northern occupied West Bank city.

Jenin, and particularly its refugee camp, is a base for Palestinian armed resistance to the Israeli occupation, who regularly battle Israeli forces during the latter’s raids.

- Al Jazeera

doing these night raids into the West Bank seems to be their MO right now

New York Times analysis indicating the projectile that Israel claims was a failed PIJ rocket was actually an Iron Dome missile and is unrelated to the subsequent hospital explosion. The Israeli narrative is falling apart if even the ~~US propaganda rag~~ "newspaper of record" is going against it.

It has no conclusions on the cause of the explosion though, just debunks of Israel's claim. But that doesn't leave many other options.

Wikipedia is finally being forced to accept that the expert analysis is not so one sided, going from

Experts largely agreed that a misfired rocket launched from within Gaza was the likely cause of the explosion based on video analysis and the extent of the damage caused by the impact.

to

Experts speaking in the days after the strike agreed with the Israel Defense Forces' analysis that a misfired Palestinian rocket launched at Israel from within Gaza and captured on video was the likely cause of the explosion. However, a subsequent video analysis by The New York Times concluded that the much-publicized video in fact showed the break-up of an Israeli rocket unrelated to the hospital explosion.

“The lives of innocent Palestinians must be protected,” Thomas-Greenfield wrote in a social media post.

“The lives of UN personnel and humanitarian workers and journalists must be protected. We mourn the loss of every single innocent life in this crisis. Every single one.”

The fucking gall.

The main post that caught my eye lately has been the Naked Capitalism article where Yves quotes John Helmer. I have some problems with it but I am in broad agreement with it nonetheless.

My summary:

Hamas had five objectives:

1. Make a fool out of the Israeli intelligence state. ✅
2. Demonstrate that Israel desperately wants to commit ethnic cleansing and/or genocide in Gaza - no more slow burn suffering. ✅
3. Hold out against the Israeli offensive into Gaza long enough for Hezbollah, as well as various Syrian, Iraqi, and Iranian forces, to intervene on the other fronts. (pending)
4. Compel the Zionist vassals inside nearby Arab states to resist Israel and the US. (pending)
5. Engage Russia and China to deter/combat US forces in the region and try and mitigate Israel's nuclear weapons. (pending)

A two-state solution appears completely impossible now unless the Zionist government capitulates, which they might never do. Hamas and the Resistance are probably in pretty good shape, relatively speaking - the fate of the Gazan civilians and the fate of the rest of the Resistance are pretty much separate now, and have to be analyzed separately. It is possible that Russia and China might tentatively engage more concretely in the war (they have big interests in the region too that would not be particularly served if a third of the region's capitals were nuked) but how exactly remains to be seen. If a hot war between the rest of the Resistance and Israel does begin, Israel might lose even if it wins due to the massive amount of infrastructure that would be targetted and destroyed by various drones and missiles.

place your bets for the chance that Israel furiously depletes their stockpile of anti-satalite missiles (assuming they have some) while taking out elon's sats and creates a cloud of high velocity shards forever trapping humans on Earth

broke: anti-zionism is anti-semitism

woke: anti-zionism is not anti-semitism

bespoke: zionism is anti-semitism

Death to America

More than 500 people killed by Israel's attack on the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza. Most of them women and children. Stop this madness!!

The above tweet by Danish footballer Nadia Nadim has made a lot of nasty people very angry at her, including the deputy leader of the hardliner zionist governing succdem party who is on the record saying that "it is highly problematic to share that kind of 'fake news'. I think it is obvious to most people that nobody knows exactly who struck the hospital".

Nadim is being accused of "disinformation" and "fake news" in mainstream media who treats it as a fact that the perpetrators of the hospital massacre are unknown or even reports the zionist lie that PIJ did it.

Alright, this one is a long shot so I'll need some help turning this lathe but: Two state solution transitionary period where the Israelis are ruled by the Communist Party

Israel is preparing to slaughter Israeli objectors just like it does Palestinians.

From The Guardian

Israeli media has reported that the Netanyahu government plans to approve new rules that will authorise police to use live fire on protesters blocking roads or entrances to cities inside Israel during the war.

According to the report, the rules have been championed by Itamar Ben Gvir, the ultra-nationalist settler and member of Netanyahu’s cabinet who oversees the police. They have received the rubber stamp of Israel’s attorney general, and will be brought before the government for authorisation on Sunday.

Before the war began on 7 October, Israeli demonstrators had been turning out weekly by the hundreds of thousands against the Netanyahu government’s plan to weaken the judiciary, with protesters regularly blocking major Israeli thoroughfares. Much smaller demonstrations have been taking places since the war started, calling for the government to work to release the Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

The war has sparked a crackdown by the Israeli government against perceived dissent, with hundreds of people arrested or disciplined for speech sympathetic to Gazans. Police have been given wide new powers to determine what applies as “support for terrorism”, and have declared they will not allow solidarity demonstrations in support of Gaza.

3m ago...

Gaza is completely isolated from the world

Tareq Abu Azzoum is able to send sporadic live broadcasts from Khan Younis in Gaza via satellite, but Al Jazeera’s news desk is unable to contact him directly due to the near-communication black out in the bombarded enclave.

What the Gaza Strip is witnessing right now is massive deterioration. We are talking about more than 2.3 million Palestinians now isolated from the world. They are unable to communicate with their relatives or with each other.

What we are now witnessing in Gaza is very unpredictable and the situation may turn on a glance. Please guys, if you can hear us, we are talking now without having any kind of contact with the news desk and just trying to wait for them to communicate. We don’t have any kind of phone contacts we might lose this contact at any moment.

What is happening on the ground is considered to be collective punishment for more than 2.3 million Palestinians. The Gaza Strip right now is completely isolated from the world.

- Al Jazeera

CNN just casually moved occipied Sderot 100km away, lol. I mean, we’ll see geographical changes soon anyway, God willing. But this one is hilarious haha. Muh CNN reliable source 🤌🏽

CNN is not ok

Hot take: the IDF is advertised as a technologically advanced force but it's going to get absolutely fucked by peasants armed with Kalashnikovs in Gaza. It's going to be the US in Viet Nam all over again, bet the house on it.

Decided to take a look at some nafo dorks on twitter to see how they're taking this and, folks, they've turned themselves into a circular firing squad.

Report indicates US wants different approach from Israel

The Washington Post earlier reported that the Biden administration is urging Israel to pursue “surgical” operations in Gaza, as opposed to a full ground incursion.

The report cited five unnamed US officials, who said the administration was concerned that Israel’s approach could lead to a wider escalation and scuttle negotiations for the release of hostages.

“They have clearly shifted from an initial ‘We have your back; we’ll do whatever you want’ to now ‘You really need to rethink your strategy.’ And they’re doing it in a careful way,” one official told the newspaper.

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane say the story could be an effort by the Biden administration to guide Israelis without officially rebuking them. It is a common strategy US administrations have used for years, she said.

“If they are talking to the Israelis, trying to guide them and give suggestions and trying, they never do it in public,” she said

lol yeah I'm sure the lunatics will listen to you despite you providing them unconditional support

GOP Presidential Candidates Threaten to Revoke Visas From Pro-Palestine Students

“Under the Trump administration, we will revoke the student visas of radical anti-American and antisemitic foreigners at our colleges and universities and we will send them straight back home,” Trump said in Iowa on October 16, falsely conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism.

. . .

Some GOP presidential candidates have demanded that the federal government revoke funding from universities that allow students to hold Palestinian solidarity protests — which are protected under the First Amendment — on their campuses.

"'Never again,' is now." There's so much wrong with that short phrase.

Netanyahu says second stage of war has begun, with goal of destroying military and government of Hamas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that the second stage of the war against Hamas has begun, with the goal of destroying the military and government of Hamas and returning hostages held in Gaza home.

“Our heroic fighters have one goal: To destroy this enemy and to make sure the existence of our country. Never again. 'Never again,' is now,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu also confirmed he spoke with the family of hostages held by Hamas and said he vowed to them that he would exhaust all options to return their loved ones.

https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news-10-28-23/h_066dd2b610622ffdc011b0feaa719009

There is a Palestinian solidarity March being held at my old university ran by its communist club. The Muslim Students Association at this same university is urging everybody not to go.

What a mess.

Edit: I just realized I posted this in the news thread rather than the general thread, oops.

my hope is with palestine tonight

hoping for many many deaths of these genocidal freaks

The FBI tapes on MLK are supposedly going to be made public in 2027 based on a court order in the 70's.

Israeli players have been targeted with “nationalist attacks” on the popular online gaming platform Roblox, Israel’s Ministry of National Security warned in a bulletin published on Thursday.

Nearly half of the game’s 65 million users are 12 years old or younger.

Claiming it had received multiple reports of Israeli players being “attacked” in the game by players whose avatars are sporting uniforms, weapons, and the flags of Palestine and Saudi Arabia, the ministry urged parents to report any “offensive content or actors” directly to Roblox so that it could be removed.

A member of an Israeli parents’ group on Facebook claimed their child had seen other Roblox users reenacting Hamas’ October 7 surprise attack on Israel, imploring their fellow group members to monitor their children’s online activities and impose parental controls on their internet use.

The game already censors the phrase ‘Free Palestine’, as well as ‘Hamas’ and some uses of the word ‘Jews’. Discussion of elected officials, political parties, current and former political candidates, and “inflammatory content related to real world border, territorial, or jurisdictional relationships” is already prohibited.

hope fetterman kills himself cause he's sad or whatever, what a scumbag

Israeli media: The army is carrying out a dangerous ground maneuver to collect intelligence information and is making a limited ground advance on the “border” with Gaza.

Initial reports of the kidnapping of soldiers during the occupation’s attempt to penetrate Beit Hanoun, north of Gaza, by Palestinian resistance fighters.

I can hear the call for prayer in Gaza, but also heavy bombings. Glory to them, their struggle will end in victory. Death to Zionism.

The UN chief says it is important to recognise the attacks by Hamas “did not happen in a vacuum”.

“The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation,” he told UN Security Council members.

“They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements, plagued by violence, their economy stifled, their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”

Guterres, however, said grievances by the Palestinians cannot justify the “appalling attacks” by Hamas, which in turn could not justify the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people”.

“At a crucial moment like this, it is vital to be clear on principles, starting with the fundamental principle of respecting and protecting civilians.”

I've been trying to find this passage in Finkelstein's book forever. the context is after Cast Lead and the Goldstone Report, there was a tiny amount of pressure on Israel, and look what happened:

Compelled to face the facts and their consequences, disarmed and exposed, Israel went into panic mode. Israeli pundits expressed alarm that the Report might impede Israel’s ability to launch military attacks in the future, while Prime Minister Netanyahu ranked the “Goldstone threat” one of the major strategic challenges confronting Israel. In the meantime, Israeli officials fretted that prosecutors might hound Israelis traveling abroad. Indeed, shortly after the Report was published, the ICC announced that it was contemplating an investigation of an Israeli officer implicated in war crimes during Cast Lead. Then, in December 2009, Tzipi Livni was forced to cancel a trip to London after a British court issued an arrest warrant for her role in the commission of war crimes while serving as foreign minister during Cast Lead; and in June 2010, two Belgian lawyers representing a group of Palestinians charged 14 Israeli politicians (including Livni and Ehud Barak) with committing crimes against humanity and war crimes during the attack.

I always think of this when libs say "well, what could we possibly do?". apart from getting rid of the aid we give them, make it impossible for them to travel for fear of arrest, sanction them, charge them with crimes, make it difficult for them to carry out military attacks, and Israel's basically done for.

Watching some footage of Israeli incursion into Gaza and... holy shit, western miltaries learned absolutely nothing from the Ukraine war. Israeli tanks are just moving in these big dumb columns. If this army tries going into Gaza-city, it'll be a complete fucking disaster

Why I Just Quit DSA, by Maurice Isserman

They wanted a break, in the not terribly distant future, from the intolerable compromises required to appeal to mainstream voters and to compromise with mainstream politicians. And they also believed that DSA members elected to public office were, first and foremost, obliged to follow the positions adopted by the organization, rather than their constituents or their own conscience, as if they were already subordinate to the dictates of an old-fashioned Marxist-Leninist central committee.

This article is the equivalent of a right-wing Democrat (, I know) addressing the Republican National Convention to say "I didn't leave the party, the party left me."

There were many eloquent responses to DSA’s all-but-explicit endorsement of Hamas’s horrifying atrocities, including those by Michelle Goldberg in The New York Times, and Joshua Leifer in Dissent. But the one I’d like to highlight is from comedian, writer, and actor Sarah Silverman . . .

Tunisia’s parliament to consider bill criminalizing relations with Israel (Al-Monitor, 27th of October, 2023)

Tunisia’s parliament is scheduled to consider next week a draft law criminalizing the normalization of relations with Israel as pro-Palestinian protests continue in the country amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

According to Tarshoun, the draft law imposes penalties ranging from six to 12 years in prison, with a fine ranging from 10,000 Tunisian dinars ($3,148) to 100,000 dinars ($31,482) against anyone who attempts to or participates in economic, cultural or military activities with Israel, the Tunisian MP said.

I am surprised nobody has thrown a shoe at Biden based on where we are on the Iraq war timeline.

Nitter

My guesses (they're pretty wild, as I know nothing of American politics):

• They will not decide on a speaker

• They will not be able to do any fucking thing

• Pressure mounts as the US needs to act to keep it's colonies

• Some false flag somewhere to justify direct action

• Biden/Dems try a maneuver to give him special powers during time of war

• Republicans take it as a coup and civil war begins

Looking for Israelis in Dagestan

In first act, new US House speaker brings pro-Israel resolution to floor

Following weeks of deadlock to select a leader for the US House of Representatives, newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson has brought his first bill to the floor – a pro-Israel resolution.

The bill, which Johnson described as being “in support of our dear friend Israel”, condemns Hamas without mentioning civilians or calling for restraint.

It passed with 412 legislators voting in favour, 10 voting against, six voting present (abstaining) and five not present.

The vote underscores the staunch support for Israel within the chamber, where only a handful of US legislators have called for a Gaza ceasefire.

Meanwhile, a report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has highlighted Johnson’s ties to the Israeli far-right. The evangelical legislator traveled to Israel in 2020 on a trip organised by a group whose leader lives in an illegal Israeli settlement, according to the newspaper.

He also visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque with right-wing groups and legislators, according to Haaretz.

- Al Jazeera

I despise this country