Bulletins and News Discussion from October 9th to October 15th, 2023 - There Were Two Reigns of Terror - COTW: Palestine
There were two “Reigns of Terror,” if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the “horrors” of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror—that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
The Country of the Week is Palestine! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
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.
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.
Telegram Channels
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
Pro-Russian
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/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/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.
Iranian news outlet Tasnim said in a report on 9 October, citing an informed Palestinian source, that elements of the Israeli army who had been collaborating with Hamas provided the resistance group with “crucial information” that aided in the successful launching of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
“Some of the information [used] during the infiltration phases [of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood] had been acquired through long-time collaboration of certain Israeli military personnel with the resistance groups. This information played a crucial role in facilitating the infiltration of forces into Israeli districts, especially the military bases surrounding Gaza,” Tasnim said, citing exclusive information from the Palestinian source. According to the official, this cooperation goes beyond “mere intelligence matters” and has been ongoing for some time.
The official states that this collaboration relates specifically to the increase over the years of weapons theft from Israeli bases. In 2012, Haaretz reported that $14 million worth of equipment had been stolen from Israeli military bases. In May 2019, Maariv newspaper reported the disappearance of nearly 50 M16 rifles, many of which were never recovered. Many instances of theft from Israeli bases have been reported since. “Robbers often easily breach security and steal military equipment, bullets, rifles, generators, and even military vehicles,” the report says. “The robberies are often committed in cooperation with the Israeli military forces stationed at these bases,” it adds, citing “an unnamed Israeli officer at the logistics directorate.”
Palestinian resistance groups have increasingly been gaining access to and using Israeli weapons, the report explains, adding that these weapons are either obtained from traffickers, or stolen from bases through collaboration “with certain Israeli military forces who have renounced Zionism.” The Iranian news outlet referred to these forces as a “secret Palestinian army.”
The report also highlights the significant surge in drug use and addiction to narcotics among Israeli forces as a major factor in the trade of arms between Palestinians and Israeli officers. As a result of this collaboration between Palestinians and Israeli army elements – which the report says Israel is aware of to an extent – Tel Aviv has been forced to “eliminate” many of its rebellious or treasonous army officers and soldiers.
“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” he told a meeting of his Likud party’s Knesset members in March 2019. “This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.”
uncritical support to Chairman Netanyahu for his one man insider insurgency against the apartheid state of israel
Salute to the people in Israel doing all they can to sabotage the IDF and steal supplies for Palestinians. They know full well what will happen if they get caught, and how easy their life could be by turning a blind eye, yet they chose to help anyway. How many people will ever be faced with a choice like that and have the steel clackers to do the righteous thing?