After 15 months of genocide - and resistance to it - the Israeli regime realized that they could not win a military victory against Hamas, and were forced to sign a humiliating ceasefire in order to get their hostages returned.
With much of Syria under the control of Al-Qaeda, and an increasing level of covert infiltration into Lebanon, the crisis in the Middle East is not over, and we may still be in its beginning stages, as the center of hegemony continues its gradual shift away from the United States. Their navy, once considered the best in the world, is likely also not very happy about their ships and aircraft carriers being forced to retreat by Yemen, one of the poorest countries; and all eyes are on Iran, who has, over the last year and a half, demonstrated a newfound confidence and strength to directly strike Israel.
The recovery for Gaza will take, at a minimum, decades; it could indeed never fully recovery to even how it was before, considering it is not in Israel's interests to see their concentration camps recover. But Hamas has proven to be steadfast and the tunnel network has proven its resilience, despite facing some of the most powerful conventional bombing in history. This shows that Palestine's liberation is a when, not an if; and hopefully a much sooner "when" than expected before October 7th.
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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.
After the end of the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel this morning, the Lebanese people are bravely confronting the the Israeli military occupation units that remain in south-eastern Lebanon, walking right up to Israeli tanks, going ahead of the Lebanese army and past their fortifications to confront the Zionists, and returning to their towns and homes. This has resulted in confrontations between the Israeli military and Lebanese civilians with Israel shooting at the Lebanese people to try stop them from returning, with ~~15 dead and 83 injured~~ 22 dead and 123 injured, including 9 minors and a paramedic, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. This has also forced the Lebanese army to actually fulfill their mandate and protect the people, as the people went ahead of the army to confront the occupation. One Lebanese army soldier is also set to have been killed.
There are too many videos and photos to post individually, but they are astounding to see.
My favourite two, very contrasting emotions:
The Middle East Observer twitter account has compiled a bunch of videos and photos on his account, if you want to see more. Even a makeshift shrine for the martyrs has been erected.
Twitter source
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Lebanese Army shows why Hezbollah exists in the first place.
And today was an act by the southern Lebanese people to actually protect the resistance and Hezbollah. They know Hezbollah cannot fire a shot right now (situation internally in Lebanon is complex), so the people go and confront the occupying Israeli forces themselves, while unarmed, showing that they are prepared to risk their life and die for their land, just as Hezbollah is with their guns and missiles. The people of the south and the resistance are unified in their goals and actions.
Imagine if, in an alternate reality, the ceasefire agreement ended and no one confronted the occupation. What message would that send to both Israel and the armed resistance in Hezbollah (and all the groups outside of Lebanon of course)? In such an alternate reality, Israel would feel emboldened, the resistance would feel as if they are distanced from the people. Instead we live in a reality where the people did confront the Israeli occupation, so the resistance knows that the people support them and are prepared to risk their lives for the resistance, just as the resistance is prepared to risk their lives for the people (and did so for many days, at a great sacrifice). They are unified.
Can you expand on the complex internal situation? I recall Hezbollah putting out statements implying the conflict would reignite if the occupation continued
It's to do with the ceasefire agreement and it's clauses, UNSC 1701, the political situation in Lebanon with the new president, and the US funding the Lebanese army, and how all this effects Hezbollah's position and ways to respond. Remember, just a week ago we had the Lebanese army destroying Hezbollah fortifications and confiscating their weapons under Israeli pressure, as Israel would bomb these positions themselves if the Lebanese army failed to tackle them. And this was encouraged (and permitted) under the ceasefire agreement by the mediators (US and France). Now, the Lebanese army is stepping in to protect Lebanese civilians (after being forced to by the civilians actions themselves in returning to their homes) and standing in front of Israeli tanks, confronting them. It's hard to explain in a single comment.