PM [Netanyahu] approved drone attacks last month on Gaza flotilla ships off Tunisian coast — report
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PM [Netanyahu] approved drone attacks last month on Gaza flotilla ships off Tunisian coast — report
The IDF run Israeli Army Radio is reporting that the offensive to take Gaza City has now been halted in light of the recent statements by US President Donald Trump.
Following Trump's announcement, the political echelon instructed the IDF to halt the operation to conquer Gaza
Following nightly assessments of the situation and talks with American officials, the political echelon instructed the IDF to reduce its activities in Gaza to a "minimum" and to carry out only defensive operations in the Strip.
The practical implication: the operation to conquer Gaza City has been halted and is on hold for the time being.
Official GLZ Radio twitter account, retweeted the above statement in Hebrew
Wow so you're telling me that this whole fucking time all it took was for the president to make a single post on social media to stop this? And Biden could have just had some idiot staffer do it for him? THIS WHOLE FUCKING TIME? Wow who could have seen this coming
SouthFront posted some more recent Palestinian resistance combat footage from Gaza City, including an IED strike on a Merkava Mk.4M tank: https://southfront.press/hamas-shares-daring-combat-footage-from-gaza-city/
Sudan recently eliminated a group of Colombian and Ukrainian mercenaries:
Sudanese troops have killed “a large number” of foreign fighters, including Ukrainian mercenaries, backing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the country’s protracted civil war, according to a statement by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) made on Thursday.
The killings occurred during clashes with the RSF in the besieged city of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, the army said.
The SAF said mercenaries from Colombia and Ukraine, including some “who were engineers in the field of drones and electronic systems,” had “tried to infiltrate the outskirts of the city’s neighborhoods.”
https://www.rt.com/africa/625861-ukrainian-mercenaries-backing-rebels-in/
If Ukrainian mercs can be in Sudan Putin really needs to strengthen his attacks
Hopefully they can liberate El Fasher, I've seen some brutal shit coming out of there, specifically this drone strike on a mosque during prayer time
Trump has posted the full Hamas statement on the "Gaza peace plan" without comment on Truth Social.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is saying that Trump is recording his response to Hamas' "acceptance" of the plan.
Trump now says that "Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly!"
The Israelis aren't too happy about Trump's reponse.
"How desperate is Trump for a Nobel Prize on a scale from one to tweeting this nonsense?" — News of Israel.
“President Trump calls on Israel to stop the attacks in the Gaza Strip, he has fallen into the trap of Hamas statement." — Israeli Channel 14.
"Trump sold Israel for a Nobel candidacy." — Yino News on Channel 14.
"This is completely crazy. Trump states: Israel must stop bombing Gaza immediately. Hamas is ready for peace based on the response they gave us." — Israeli Channel 12.
"For the first time since the start of the war, the US does not accept the principle of negotiating under fire." — Yaron Avraham of Israeli Channel 12.
"We were always alone." — Hillel Biton Rosen of Israeli Channel 14
"The tables have turned on us." — Hadashot.
"The state's leadership remains silent after Trump's response." — Ma'ariv.
"After Netanyahu succeeded in introducing amendments to the Trump plan, the Arab states achieve a new tactical victory, and this plan as a whole is turned into a state of radical change. Trump distorts the reputation of Israel, which cannot currently say that Hamas's response is unacceptable to it." — Israeli Channel 11.
Apparently, even officials close to Netanyahu are saying that he was 'surprised' by Trump's response.
Trump distorts the reputation of Israel, which cannot currently say that Hamas's response is unacceptable to it.
"we're hard at work looking for a way out of this"
I mean they are a bunch of crybabies who what to kill everyone in Gaza so whatever. I care exactly zero for what they think. Hamas has agreed to release all the hostages and transfer governance to the technocratic committee under certain conditions. These are big concessions and the USA obviously thinks that they can work with that given the latest statements.
He really wants that Nobel Peace Prize
Give it to him tbh
Trump temporarily disrupting the ongoing Zionist offensive in Gaza City in order to attempt formal negotiations would be positive, but I'm not holding my breath
Arab regime buy in to the plan is the big difference compared to before.
Would this, in theory, actually protect Palestinians? Presumably the risk of killing Egyptian or Saudi etc. personnel might deter the more aggressive acts the entity usually takes?
If the Arabs and Indonesians actually come in, yeah, it would definitely stop the Israeli assaults.
Last time he got pows released, the bombing commenced the second he was out
Israel is currently doing their usual move that they do before any "ceasefire" of bombing the hell out everything up until the final minute or past it, so...
Yes this wasn't that long ago, could they really fall for the same trick twice ? Giving up the majority of their leverage with no guarantees...
I am starting to wonder if ultimately the hostages are a liability at this point. If there are no hostages, then it becomes all about “eliminating Hamas”, which I think may be increasingly untenable of a position to hold to. Everyone (including Israeli military and civilian leadership) knows that is an impossible goal.
Yes it's a good point, Israel's only remaining line they keep hammering is "bringing the hostages home" so if that is completed and they keep genocide going it makes them look somehow even more evil. Yet if people aren't there already, is that going to change their minds?
Yes, my theory is certainly half-baked. It still relies on pressure from a source other than the Resistance (Israeli society, western governments, etc) and so far relying on those elements to be able to have any impact on the genocide has been a losers game.
The annihilation of your entire people can compel tough decisions. All we can do is wait and see
I think Trump is under serious pressure from the Gulf states. The US can't let Zionist ambitions get in the way of their greater goal of continued domination of the Middle East.
The final deal will probably still suck for the resistance, but I think there's a chance it could really happen this time.
Short rant and some thoughts about the left and immigration:
I commented below in response to the post about Putin’s blaming “mass immigration” for destroying European culture, and thought maybe to expand a bit more from that comment.
It’s been a bit unsettling for me this week because of the overreaction spontaneously erupted on the Chinese internet regarding the K visa. As a country not known for its openness for immigration, for about an 48-hour window, this was perhaps the first time that many - based on an unsubstantiated rumor - have had to grapple with the anxiety of facing “mass immigration”.
Although I’ve seen widespread latent and casual racism and xenophobia over the years, especially against Indians, this is really the first time that such spontaneous eruption of anti-immigration discourse that occurred in a very organic fashion, when the “fear of mass immigration” is suddenly being perceived as real instead of something you’d never thought could happen in your country.
The short version is that China announced a new K visa for foreign STEM talents back in August that would be implemented on October 1st, without much attention paid to it. Then last month, Trump imposed a $100k free on H-1B, and Western media started reporting on how China is going to benefit from it, and pointed to China’s K visa policy.
Somehow, someone put the two together and just 2-3 days before the National Day when the K visa was due to be officially implemented, fearmongering rumors began to spread virally on Chinese social media, insinuating that how it opens up the floodgates for foreigners to enter China.
To be fair, the policy announcement appears half-baked without much detail about how exactly it is going to be implemented, so it leaves people more confused than ever. You can apply for the visa if you are:
The biggest problem here lies in what exactly is the purpose of the K visa?
I doubt any foreigner who don’t speak Mandarin Chinese semi-proficiently will ever get hired by Chinese companies because most of them are absolutely not equipped to communicate in another language. So, where are these people going to find work?
If we’re talking about foreign talents working in academia, then there is already an R visa “high-level foreign talents” for top people in the field, yet the simple requirement here is simply holding a bachelors degree.
Finally, if we’re talking about foreign multinational corporations that are indeed equipped to accommodate English speakers, then these companies have their own recruitment process, competitive application process and visa sponsorship, not to mention very limited spots usually only available for the top graduates.
As such, it is easy to see where there is plenty of room for imagination, and fearmongering conspiracies were abound, with plenty of comments like “I can finally understand what MAGA / rednecks (红脖子) are going through in their country”.
In general, the complaints took on a few flavors (cw: racism, obviously):
Nonetheless, the actual reasons are not important. What is interesting, and scary, is the overreaction against the perceived “threat” of mass immigration, which was likely a culmination of a combination of factors, including the precariousness of the average people who are anxious about the unstable job market and economic uncertainty, being persistently fed with widespread viral content that propagate the most uncharitable stereotype about other countries, as well as the intensifying antagonism between the sexes as less and less people are interested in settling down to raise a family.
Typically, as leftists, we would associate this kind of anti-immigration anger to be intrinsic to capitalist countries, because the capitalists want the working class to hate each other. But how can you explain the situation in China?
A point to make here is that there is also increasing cognitive dissonance between perceiving one own’s country to have become a great superpower with the many advanced technologies, surpassing even the West, yet at the same time they are working harder and longer hours than ever, no stability in the job market, wages are barely rising, quality of life is not improving, the house prices remain far out of reach, and there is a general pessimistic outlook for future.
To give you an example, imagine you went through your primary school in the 2000s, chances are in a few years, your parents would soon purchase a new house, one that would be a huge upgrade over your childhood home in some provincial town. Things look to be getting better by the day, and you dream about doing the same one day.
Then, you went through middle/high school hoping to score in gaokao to get into university, obtain a degree and get a nice paying job post-college, settle down and raise a family. There was already some alarming trend about the property market, and the house prices are starting to look a bit out of reach, but nothing too much to worry yet.
By the time you are studying in university, the property price would have peaked and plunged. It would have been a good thing if it weren’t such a drag on the entire economy, and you are suddenly facing a worse prospect that you never thought would happen growing up: unemployment, or the poor prospect of getting employed.
This is how fast an economic trend can go in China - what takes several generations of wealth accumulation to happen in Western capitalist countries, it can happen in 10-15 years in China. You are literally experiencing the rise and fall in real time, and there is obviously a lot of cognitive dissonance to take in.
Yes, the country is now a superpower. We have the most advanced 6th gen fighter. We have the best EV industries in the world. The best robotics and automation in industries. But - is that making your life easier? Why are you only getting two off-days per month? Why are you still being asked to work overtime by your boss every damn week? Despite being more productive than ever, why are your wages not rising?
All of this anxiety is being coalesced into a latent rage. It is perhaps not surprising that people would lash out when they hear some fearmongering rumor about mass immigration.
And I think there’s some lesson for the left here when it comes to immigration:
Tbh not so sure about that mass immigration even on paper, In the US the possible BS-PhDs that could go for it, but they're not likely to immigrate out since 1. lack money and 2. language and 3. for a good deal of them despite being personally beaten senseless by the invisible cudgel of the market still fall for typical F tier agency propaganda. Now, I think this applies a lot to the west at large, global south 0 clue so, but I still get the sense a lot of the whole concept of this opening the floodgates is overstated though the econ anxiety will be there until the economy evolves properly.
There's probably going to be a huge steam investment and push sometime in the future I figure, must be getting all the workers to power it in place and local talent isn't enough and maybe there's a plan for a more international expansion in the future, ex more fine semiconductor factories to think of an obvious one.
To survive China ended its more „disruptive“ revolutionary characteristics such as internationalism, especially post gang of four, then the long years of the socialist nadir sanded off those revolutionary characteristics in its populace. Its not an enviable position to be in for the Chinese vanguard.
A wish for economic sovereignty is required for global south nations, but the very same ideology does provide groundcover for less than ideal attitudes about other nations. The conservatism with socialist aesthetics, which is ideology the revisionist forces like russia promote doesn’t seem to help that situation.
Have you seen how Indians have built an entire industry of “fake qualifications” to game the Western immigration system?” -
Ironically this is exactly the same propaganda levelled at the sneaky chinese who are ontologically predisposed towards cheating, "cheating is chinese culture, they cheat at everything!"
Nonetheless, the actual reasons are not important. What is interesting, and scary, is the overreaction against the perceived “threat” of mass immigration, which was likely a culmination of a combination of factors, including the precariousness of the average people who are anxious about the unstable job market and economic uncertainty, being persistently fed with widespread viral content that propagate the most uncharitable stereotype about other countries, as well as the intensifying antagonism between the sexes as less and less people are interested in settling down to raise a family.
The country has been isolationist forever and has made almost no effort to spread internationalism. This attitude is not actually that surprising amongst its population when its leadership have an international attitude of keeping to themselves. The population are only mirroring what the official chinese policy on international engagement is.
If the state's official line is zero solidarity with the international working class then the population holding zero solidarity with the international working class is to be expected.
The country has been isolationist forever and has made almost no effort to spread internationalism.
Not true though. China aided Korea and Vietnam and sacrificed heavily for that. Although you can claim it’s mostly self-preservation because of the proxy wars by the US, at least half a million of the People’s Volunteer Army died fighting against the Americans.
Ironically, it was after opening up under Deng that China had changed its internationalist position. China did invade Vietnam to appease the Americans though, but this is part of the process of being “integrated” into the global market and the neoliberal framework.
These are neighbours and also asian. I would think the reaction is probably not that different to a German and another european, which is mostly fine... Things get totally different when it's neither of those things though.
I feel like people need to study China-Pakistan relations more. China-US, China-Russia/SU, China-Vietnam, China-Korea, and China-India get all the attention while China-Pakistan is an underexplored topic among the left even though the two countries border each other, have a common enemy that also borders them, and have border disputes with each other (and the common enemy).
I don't have a good read of this relationship. My understanding is that China mostly left Pakistan to fend for itself in its various wars with India, but China is apparently the main reason how Pakistan even got nukes in the first place? Pakistan's political class is apparently pro-US, but the vast majority of their weapons are Chinese?
If China didn't help Pakistan jumpstart its nuclear program, which is the official line of China and Pakistan, then the case for Chinese isolationism is clear: China largely kept to itself while Pakistan and India were at war because its default foreign policy is isolationism. China did not intervene because the CPC felt that Pakistan could put up a fight (although they lost East Pakistan/Bangladesh in one of the wars) while China intervened in Korea because Korea was about to be completely overrun by the US. China not militarily helping Pakistan would then lead to Pakistan nuking up because Pakistan needed a trump card against India and could not militarily rely on China.
This is, of course, assuming that China didn't help Pakistan with its nuclear program. If China actually did, which is the official line of the West and India, then China simultaneously not militarily helping Pakistan in its wars but helping Pakistan nuke up is far more perplexing.
If the state's official line is zero solidarity with the international working class then the population holding zero solidarity with the international working class is to be expected.
Agree but I think it's the other way around, if the civil society don't care for proletarian internationalism, the state will reflect that, especially in China.
I agree. And think it's a very dangerous position to be in. What happens if this background national chauvinism evolves into supremacism?
But - is that making your life easier?
Lmao. The Maoist argumentation is wrong because it deliberately misses the forest for the trees in a facile "but what have the Romans done for me?" style of argumentation that Chinese online rhetoric often have this rather peculiarly unique characteristic of framing as if they're the first people in history to try such a sophistic stunt. China has objectively in all parameters gone through the greatest collective mass poverty alleviation campaign in human history. The Economist, RAND, The Atlantic all have articles where they admit this with gritted teeth yet you can't even say the same about Chinese Maoist/Ultra/Libs, which is interesting. I've lately come to understand this style of Socratic-aping Chinese rhetorical style much better after discovering Chinese Maoist forums like v2.redchinacn.org, which has incidentally gone off the deep end with Kirk apologia recently.
In any case, the anti-immigration sentiment is simply a continuation of the same movement from 2020, where online backlash quashed the Chinese permanent residency reform project. Similarly, this K visa initiative is essentially a second attempt that follows in the footsteps of that 2020 draft proposal which aimed at: "China would formally expand the pool of immigrants that could qualify for P.R. to a still select but larger group of high-income or highly educated long-term migrants." K visa would be the 0.5 version, where the goal is merely to get visa holders rather than broach the subject of permanent residency.
There's a decent article in Routledge's Journal of Contemporary China analyzing that episode though it has the typical "they have nationalists, we have patriots" sort of academic orientalism. The author notes the typical emotionally-overwrought sort of nakedly manipulative discourse that is profuse on the Chinese internet being used: "As a Han Chinese, I am crying softly,"; "I am here! 1.4 billion compatriots are here! As a Chinese, if it is necessary, there will be action on May 4!"
Beyond that kind of nonsense, the actual substantive objections that the author summarizes are the same ones being reused five years later against this K visa initiative.
The draft regulations to many seemed to fit in a tradition of the state privileging foreign nationals, at a time when domestic employment and residential conditions for many Chinese citizens are considered far from adequate. Attracting larger numbers of immigrants to aid China’s development, also sounds inappropriate to some, given China’s recent history of government-enforced family planning. Some suggest revising the regulations to eliminate any loopholes for so-called ‘low-quality’ migrants and to include guarantees that P.R. holders would not be privileged over local Chinese.
Part of the contradiction is that these foreign workers are predominantly drawn to major urban locations like Shanghai known both for their Chinese liberal population and their deluded "I am a global citizen" type of multinational suit wearing capitalists. Both groups ideologically would favor foreign workers of select demographics and this creates the sort of imagery of privilege that provokes this sort of backlash, though it should be said that the Chinese online vocal minority commentariat often has this sort of self-orientalizing narcissism that assumes all other 1.4 billion people in their country are a hive mind that secretly share their personal political opinion, if only but for the dastardly Weibo censors preventing their posts' true updoot numbers from coming to light, as seen by the cited "I am here! 1.4 billion compatriots are here!" style of comments.
Another one of the issues is the typical catch-22 associated with most socialist governments, which is that they are overly sensitive of their Western-propaganda maligned depiction as "repressive authoritarian regimes" which makes them excessively petrified by accusations of "authoritarianism" through alleged governmental overreach, rendering them particularly indecisive and obsequious in instances when they ought to be standing their ground and demonstrating some faith in their governing mandate and legitimacy. This makes socialist governments exceptionally vulnerable to groups that are aware of this contradiction and then deliberately take advantage of it. This is how the 2020 PR draft was shut down. This is how the "white paper" Shanghai lib protesters are credited with "ending" Zero Covid, as if they weren't always a minority and the vast majority of people by all accounts silently still tolerated the policy.
In 20th century socialist states, this was how the DDR failed to react to the Berlin Wall breach debacle, totally capitulating to the BRD in spite of most East German citizens preferring a negotiated union rather than the total annexation by the West as it happened in reality. It was also how the CPSU (or what was left of it) tolerated the illegal secession of the Baltics and why the August putschists spinelessly dithered in 1991. Incidentally, the 1989 Tiananmen failed counter-revolution was the only major time a socialist government stood their ground against this sort of issue and that decision is why the People's Republic still exists today.
Overall, it’s actually good for the xenophobia to make itself plain, because that’s the only way it can be ever addressed in the first place. While socialist states have promoted societal internationalist values of tolerance, we saw how easily they were subverted following the fall of those states. Superficial tolerance led to Khrushchev blathering about how the USSR "solved the nationality issue." In the DDR, this gave way to Neo-Nazis and the AfD; in the USSR, this gave way to ethnic pogroms in the 90s and the current disastrous state of the former Soviet world. China has the privilege of those types outing themselves while the socialist state still holds power so it will be interesting to see if they concede once again to the vocal minority on this matter or push ahead forward.
As I mentioned in the post, I think it has more to do with a lack of social welfare, jobs guarantee, free healthcare and housing that exacerbate the precariousness of the working class people. These are all basic guarantees that should exist in a socialist country, but the problem was not as palpable after the opening up because the country was experiencing rapid growth for decades.
Now that the growth has slowed down, the lack of such social safety nets is compounding the precariousness for your average worker.
Whether it’s the post-USSR, DDR as you mentioned, or “social democratic” Europe, it all coincides with the erosion of social welfare and workers rights being abandoned as even the left-wing parties in these countries adopted neoliberal policies since the 1990s (for some, it’s even earlier).
Lmao. The Maoist argumentation is wrong because it deliberately misses the forest for the trees in a facile "but what have the Romans done for me?" style of argumentation that Chinese online rhetoric often have this rather peculiarly unique characteristic of framing as if they're the first people in history to try such a sophistic stunt. China has objectively in all parameters gone through the greatest collective mass poverty alleviation campaign in human history. The Economist, RAND, The Atlantic all have articles where they admit this with gritted teeth yet you can't even say the same about Chinese Maoist/Ultra/Libs, which is interesting. I've lately come to understand this style of Socratic-aping Chinese rhetorical style much better after discovering Chinese Maoist forums like v2.redchinacn.org, which has incidentally gone off the deep end with Kirk apologia recently.
There's a decent article in Routledge's Journal of Contemporary China analyzing that episode though it has the typical "they have nationalists, we have patriots" sort of academic orientalism. The author notes the typical emotionally-overwrought sort of nakedly manipulative discourse that is profuse on the Chinese internet being used: "As a Han Chinese, I am crying softly,"; "I am here! 1.4 billion compatriots are here! As a Chinese, if it is necessary, there will be action on May 4!"
though it should be said that the Chinese online vocal minority commentariat often has this sort of self-orientalizing narcissism that assumes all other 1.4 billion people in their country are a hive mind that secretly share their personal political opinion, if only but for the dastardly Weibo censors preventing their posts' true updoot numbers from coming to light, as seen by the cited "I am here! 1.4 billion compatriots are here!" style of comments.
So basically "netizens gonna netizen?"
What's mostly disappointing from reading all this is the clear failure of Chinese socialist ideology in translating into proletarian internationalism. When you have a supposedly socialist society bitching about muh immigrants you have failed in trying to create solidarity between working class peoples.
This likely explains why the Chinese government has no intention of helping liberation or socialist struggles around the world (ie Gaza). The civil society in China don't really care that much any more than what the rest of the people in the world already do.
As I mentioned, I think the perceived threat of immigration is a culmination of many factors, but the most important I believe is just how precarious the employment for an average person is right now.
These weren’t problems when China was enjoying double digit growth from a rising export industries 10-15 years ago, or when the property market was booming before Covid. Back then, jobs were easy to find, and money could be easily earned as long as you are willing to work hard. But it is a problem now.
It is no coincidence that China has been experiencing deflation and poor domestic consumption, despite efforts to raise it.
Instead of giving more subsidies to encourage consumer spending, the government should focus on establishing social welfare, jobs guarantee, free healthcare and free housing (ironically, ended in 1998) so people have a safety net. These should all be basic guarantees for a socialist country and you cannot solve the fundamental economic issue without that.
Hamas responded to the "peace plan", accepting to enter negotiations. I'm almost certain these will be rejected or destroyed by America and "Israel". The Hamas response states the need for Palestinian consensus for the interim governing authority, which the empire will never accept.
I assume this is a maneuver to make a visible show of peace, and letting Trump feel he is in within reach of that Nobel, so that Israel will have to cross Trump in order to resume violence. Maybe the plan is to go ahead and release the hostages on the assumption that without that casus belli, Israel will have less room to resume violence between Trump and the other Western leaders.
Not a bad gambit I suppose, and I largely trust Hamas’ judgement as they have shown good judgement so far… but I think that while Israel does not dictate policy to the US, it does seem that Netanyahu ultimately gets his way with Trump after they talk in person.
But I do feel strongly that accepting the 20 point plan would have been the beginning of the end of the resistance is Gaza.