Image is of destruction and damage inside Israel, sourced from this article.
Iran and Israel have struck each other many times over the last few days. There has been a general focus on military facilities and headquarters by both sides, though Israel has also struck oil facilities, civilian structures and hospitals, and in return for this, Iran has struck major scientific centers and the Haifa oil facilities.
Israel appears to have three main aims. First, to collapse the Iranian state, either through shock and breakdown by killing enough senior officials, or via some sort of internal military coup. Second, to try and destroy Iranian nuclear sites and underground missile cities, or at least to paralyze them long enough to achieve the first and third goals. And third, to bring the US into a direct conflict with Iran. This is because the US better equipped to fight them than Israel is (though victory would still not be guaranteed depending on what Iran chooses to do).
Iranian nuclear facilities are hidden deep underground (800 meters), far beyond the depth range of even the most powerful bunker busters (~70 meters or so), and built such that the visible ground entrances are horizontally far away in an unknown direction from the actual underground chambers. Only an extremely competent full-scale American bombing force all simultaneously using multiple of the most powerful conventional (perhaps even nuclear) bunker busters could even hypothetically hope to breach them (and we have seen how, in practice, American bunker busters have largely failed to impair or deter Ansarallah). There are several analysts on both sides who have concluded that it is entirely impossible to physically prevent Iran from building nukes.
I fully expect the US to join the war. I believe the current ambiguity is a deliberate invention of the US while they work to move their military assets into position, and as soon as they are ready, the US will start bombing Iran. After that, Iran's leadership must - if they haven't already - harden their hearts, and strike back with no fear, or risk following the path of Libya, Syria, and Iraq, either into either surrender, occupation, or annihilation. Every day where they do not possess a nuke is a day where lives are being lost and cities are being bombed.
Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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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.
I've been pretty busy and gone for a while, so here is basically a college essay summarizing some recent events:
The IDF Central Command allegedly, has moved their operations to the underground of the Ichilov Hospital, from the Matcal Tower about half a kilometer away after the building was damaged by rocket attacks. TRT Global, Quds News Network - However, there is very little evidence as of yet to corroborate this claim, as plausible as it is. Of course, IDF has embedded a significant number of its key military assets within dense urban areas surrounded by high-rise towers and the use of "human shields" by the IDF has been documented for over 20 years at minimum.
KKKraut Foreign Ministry has condemned Iran for the retaliatory attack against the Nazi entity before Iran even pulled the trigger by the way. - XCancel - KKKraut FM
On the anniversary of the Namibian Genocide two weeks ago, the KKKraut Foreign Ministry refused to recognize Palestine, with the words that it would send "the wrong message". Hmm, what kind of "wrong signal" is the Hitlerstaat insinuating, that a non-Western populace has the right to exist and resist holocaust even through violence, or that the KKKrauts don't want another Namibia/South Africa to exist in the world? - Al Arabiya
Namibian-born anti-Apartheid activist Horst Kleinschmidt had highlighted that Germany has reneged on it's obligations to pay reparations to Namibia for the Nama and Herero Genocide, resulting in the deaths of 70-150,000 people. He is also rightfully critical of Germany's ironclad support of the current Nazi entity and the crimes it commits, the same that Kleinschmidt fought against in South Africa prior to his arrest and exile. - Salaamedia
Kleinschmidt also appeared live on Salaamedia to discuss his experiences fighting Apartheid in South Africa and casting doubt on Germany percieving itself as the aegis of democracy and freedom, while Berlin actively suppresses any pro-Palestinian activism in a borderline Orwellian crackdown. He even contrasts that if the Jews for Justice in Palestine (likely referring to the SAJFP?) were to go to Berlin and repeat the statements they openly voice in South Africa, they would be immediately arrested. - Salaamedia Live - Yewtube
Journalist Abubakr Amed has escaped from Deir al-Balah to Dublin and gave an interview on Salaamedia Live, on which he mentions "survivors' guilt" and further details the longstanding trauma that exists even for those who manage to escape to freedom. He also mentions how the costs of food have skyrocketed rapidly in not only the Gaza strip as a whole, but even moreso in the northern half, with a single onion costing upwards of R600 ZAR and a kilogram of flour as much as R800, possibly even more. A large, 25KG bag of flour costs as much as R20,000 ZAR. For context, R20,000 ZAR exceeds 6 months rent/mortgage of most 1BR apartments in any South African city. - Salaamedia Live - Yewtube, Al Jazeera - Food costs in Gaza
South Africa has also been once again, making the rounds across the world:
Mandla Mandela was arrested by Egyptian authorities in the crackdown against the March to Gaza, along with over 100 others and passports (including his) have been confiscated. - IOL
Muhammed Desai of Africa4Palestine/BDS South Africa and ardent member of the South African Communist Party, has recently visited the Iranian MFA in Tehran to discuss various matters and reaffirm South African support for Iran's right to self-defense. Though there isn't really much material support that South Africa can offer to Iran, outside of both being BRICS members.
The Chief of the SANDF is meeting the PLA Minister of Defense in Beijing to expand military cooperation between the two countries and "resist hegemonic practices and bullying". The SANDF is presently rather weak and underfunded to adequately defend South Africa if/when push comes to shove and the perception of safety by "geographic isolation" is shattered. Have the events in the past 3 years and the language directed at South Africa, particularly from the West, suddenly created a realization that the SANDF needs to be supported, with the aid of friendlier, more powerful nations? - Xinhua News, China MoD
Death to ameriKKKa, de-nazify deutSSchland, death to piSSrael