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.
The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, addressed the nation:
– I offer my congratulations to the great nation of Iran; first, congratulations on the victory over the fake Zionist regime, and secondly, the victory over the American regime.
– The Americans entered the war directly because Israel would have completely lost and become hopeless otherwise.
– The U.S. gained nothing from this intervention, Trump greatly exaggerated what happened, and our nuclear sites remain unaffected.
– The enemies don’t seek an end to Iran’s missile or nuclear program, they seek an unconditional surrender, which our powerful nation will never accept.
– The U.S. needed to put on a show, and that’s what they did. But Iran remains steadfast, and our progress continues.
- Telegram
Removed by mod
Something I missed yesterday, to do with this, the entombment of underground nuclear facilities in Iran. Israeli public broadcaster Kan News is now reporting that there is an unofficial agreement/understanding that Iran can’t excavate their underground nuclear facilities, otherwise they’ll face US military action. The facilities have to remain entombed, at least for now. Israeli state media source so of course remain highly skeptical, but it does line up with the events of the past few days. It also shows that Israel at the very least is pushing hard to keep these facilities entombed. The only thing Iran have done so far is fill up the two craters at Natanz from the two GBU-57 MOP strikes there with lots of soil. Good idea to prevent any potential radiation leakage.
The US warned Iran to stay away from nuclear sites bombed in recent strikes, to prevent Tehran from recovering enriched uranium possibly buried beneath the rubble.
American and Israeli intelligence are closely monitoring the Fordow and Isfahan facilities, where uranium stockpiles may have been stored prior to the attacks, Kan News reports.
A senior Israeli official told Kan that if Iran attempts to extract the uranium, “it’s up to the US” to decide how to respond.
Esmail Qaani head of IRGC’s elite Quds force, he’s definitely alive and was indeed reported dead by Israel so who knows which others aren’t.
Here is a report of his death: https://archive.is/V9BOy
Finland news: Business lobby proposes cutting public holidays to fund defence spending
The bougies want to make the public holidays of Ephiphany day and Ascension day always be on a weekend, in order to leech more capital from the working class under the convenient guise of paying for NATO’s defence demands. EK, the main finance ghoul lobby in finland, has also been pushing for fewer public holidays for ages, but literally no one has supported it. Now they finally have a crisis to exploit. Personally I think this is likely to go through with little resistance, because, you know, the russians. The unions and the left party might release a strongly worded letter or two, but likely do nothing about it, since they broadly support NATO’s extortion.
For context, Epiphany and Ascension can fall on a weekday (which is obviously based), for example this year epiphany fell on a monday (3 day weekend lfg) and ascension on a thursday (take friday off = 4 day weekend lfg). Idk and idgaf what the original meaning of the holiday is, a free day is a free day.
How do you say finland in maoist standard english btw? I can’t figure it out.
Does anyone know Mamandi’s stance on gun rights? Is he leftist when it comes that too or just another lib? Right now NYC is has one of the strictest gun laws, where you need to go to the pigs office to apply for an expensive permit which could take up to a year just to be able to walk into a gun store and purchase a gun. Also you need permission from the pigs for every gun you purchase, and the permits for handguns and rifles are different, so you would need them both, plus the permission slips for each gun you own.
Pic of Iranian officials inspecting the J-10C in China: https://xcancel.com/IranWarDesigner/status/1937919699590795561
Putin and Xi are not attending the BRICS summit in Brazil this year. IBS?
Putin is ostensibly not going because of his ICC arrest warrant. Xi is missing it for the first time ever.
A German journalist has spilled the beans on Zionist military censorship:
Some interesting protest pictures coming out of Kenya today. Protests a year after the Kenyan youth stormed Parliament. Interesting to see them wearing shirts calling themselves Gen-Z. I sometimes forget that the American labels for age groups end up getting used by a number of other countries.
MAGA already calling on Trump to deport the People’s Mayor…
Interesting, some explosions have gone off in Latakia province (Syria) recently:
"According to informed sources, a series of powerful explosions has struck bases belonging to foreign militant groups affiliated with the terrorist al-Jolani regime.
As reported by Al Mayadeen, the blasts occurred near the village of Qurfays in the countryside of Latakia, targeting facilities linked to the drone unit of the so-called Ministry of Defense of the Jolani terrorist regime."
https://en.mehrnews.com/news/233646/Over-10-powerful-explosions-rock-Syria
Lol Indian fascist subs are big mad on Zohran’s victory.
I heard a new claim about Mao today and I have no idea what this person is talking about, but they were saying they didn’t like him bc he racialized China. Where does this bogus claim come from.
