news

Lebanon is a go

On a brighter note, oven-reheated frozen Costco croissants are so good.

Unironically better than half the cafes around here.

Interview (mostly prior to the breakout from Gaza, but some was added about it prior to publication) with an anarchist from Jaffa on the escalation in Palestine and Israeli repression: https://crimethinc.com/2023/10/08/a-nuclear-superpower-and-a-dispossessed-people-an-anarchist-from-jaffa-on-the-violence-in-palestine-and-israeli-repression

A couple of notable excerpts:

The central point of contention within Israeli society, and the one getting most attention internationally, is the government’s assault on the judiciary—but that is an aesthetic rift, veiled as a struggle for democracy. In truth, this is an internal dispute over how to best manage and maintain Jewish supremacy, which enjoys near wall-to-wall support within Israeli society, also among so-called liberals.

The specific changes that the current coalition seeks to enforce will probably render the courts weaker and slightly less liberal, but the courts have never been defenders of our rights, let alone Palestinian rights, nor inhibiters of government policies. Not even a little. The Israeli judiciary is and always has been a fundamental cornerstone of Israeli colonialism between the river and the sea; it has been essential in enabling Zionist policies and providing the system around it with a reputable liberal legal guise. Israel depends on its ability to portray and market itself as a so-called vibrant democracy. A weaker judiciary might carry some harm, but I believe the prospect of a perceived victory by the protest movement against it poses an even greater danger to the overall struggle against colonialism and apartheid.

The protest movement is dominated by an amalgamation of military reservists, former senior members of Israel’s notorious secret police, the Shin Bet [Israel’s internal security service], economic liberals, and various other Zionist and nationalistic groups. There are some more radical elements involved, but their role and influence are abysmal. The Israeli flag is made up of Jewish symbols, and is an emblem of Jewish exclusiveness and supremacy, and it is no coincidence that it is the protest movement’s most prominent symbol. These groups are wedded to the idea of Israel being a democracy, and to the idea that Jewish supremacy does not contradict this. By and large, this is also the most prevalent sentiment among the masses participating in the protests. Any victory of that movement will be used to strengthen the misguided and dangerous notion that Israeli democracy has prevailed, wrongly suggesting that there was an Israeli democracy to begin with.

I feel that in a settler-colonial situation like the one in Palestine, our role is not, and should not be, that of moderates within the settler society. We must reject this society, its point of view, its internal politics altogether. We must understand that the power disparity means that change cannot come from within Israeli society. Our role is to weaken it, to create splits, to sow division, to resist outright. In a time of contention, we must not try to find our way into Israeli society, but away from it and into the struggle against it.

Free brought up the Warsaw Ghetto rebellion as an example of how hope or the prospect of success isn’t a criterion for struggle and resistance. That hit home back then, and still does now.

The moral of the story is to organize and build movements of resistance even when everything seems lost. My view of anarchism isn’t utopian. In my eyes, every victory, every success, must be immediately perceived as a failure, as a power structure to struggle against and take down. They say perfect is the enemy of good, but that’s only because they lack any imagination and good is never good enough. Imperfection is a constant, but we just keep on fighting, turning victory into defeat into struggle at every turn.

My response to the charges and facts described in the indictment is irrelevant. Since the very manner in which this trial is conducted is an expression of Israeli apartheid, cooperation would be complacency. For over twenty years I have devoted my time to fight Israel’s colonial rule, and I am unwilling and unable to cooperate with it now, even if my decision means being put behind bars again.

Therefore, despite having no intention to admit to something I did not do, I will not question the state’s witnesses, call any on my behalf or testify myself; I will not challenge the prosecution’s so-called evidence, nor will I provide any disproving evidence of my own. Israeli colonialism and its apartheid regime are illegitimate at their core. This court is illegitimate. The proceedings in this case, which supplement other proceedings taking place in the parallel and illegitimate military court, whose raison d’être is the suppression of resistance, are all illegitimate. The only reasonable response to this indictment, to this reality, is the struggle for liberty and liberation. No voice is louder than the voice of the uprising!

in the obscure ukraine war theather theres theres also movement

and :

Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces General Rajmund Andrzejczak resigns.. any theories ?

did he wanted to go into lemberg , dint want to go into Lemberg ?

AJ talks to too many westerners tbh. I honestly dgaf what some British dude thinks. Its fun when they bring natsec ghouls on to dunk on tho.

China discussion

I wrote this as a reply on that chain over the Xi meeting US senators headline. It was already an extremely bad look imo, now its just comical the mistiming Josep Borrell to visit China

So I'll make my arguments here again replaying to @Frank@hexbear.net since at least its worthwhile news and I think he made good points too, its worth talking about..

The world is in the process of re-aligning. The Petrodollar system may collapse. You shouldn't interrupt your enemy when they're making a mistake. Right now avoiding direct conflict is a good strategy. America will continue to cannibalize itself and lose it's hegemonic power. China and BRICS stand to gain economic power and political status they continue to not be insane warmongers.

I even made all of these points in the past so I know these points are extremely convincing, but I wasn't aiming at such a broad take, the US senators visit is simply a mistimed rare L imo. I can't fathom what on earth the CPC was hoping to achieve here. We know the level of incompetence of the US political class, Xi literaly lectured Trudeau over his duplicity. I was under the impression he knows better than anyone too, we just had the whole Biden/Xi meeting that didn't happen too. I also understand the desire to maintain dialogue but ultimately what the US is doing here is the same thing they did in Ukraine i.e waste time while arming their ally for war, and we know because they literally admitted it(Merkel incident and others). Maybe I should give them credit but its hard to not take the CPC at face value here they really seem to think US politicians are capable of dialogue.

This also isn't happening in a vacuum either, it is a meeting happening barely 14 months after the Pelosi/Taiwan affair. How does one reasonably explain flip flopping from "this [politician] committed the greatest affront to Chinese national interests in the last 3 decades" to "we will meet with your [politicians] actually as a treat". I understand previous meetings in the context of the sanctions and a Ukraine peace deal, but this is what? "Billateral ties?"

And if that happens everyone dies, so I appreciate that they're continuing to try to keep things from decaying in to WWIII.

The entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict involves about 12 million people. The CPC is responsible for the well-being of about 1.3 billion people. It doesn't have the force-projection to invade a nuclear armed state on the far side of the world, nor as far as I know does it have any levers to effect Israeli behavior. This is way, way outside their sphere of influence and interest and as far as I know they have limited, if any, resources to influence the outcomes of a far away regional conflict.

My hope is to not just do naive criticism, I understand entirely there is a huge difference between what China can effectively actually do vs what I wish they would do. I also completely understand why Israel/Palestine is not anywhere close to a "red line" for China.

But now that I think more about it, its dangerous that China wants to have its cake and eat it. They moved to transform BRICS into this anti-imperialist bloc. Extremely cool, good and based. Uncritical support. But now that you decided to put yourself as a geopolitical player, you can't turn around and be picking and choosing your battles cynically, "oh we can support A but not B, too bad you're out of luck I guess".

It is also important to note some of nations(Iran, Egypt, Saudi and UAE) currently involved/adjacent to this are now BRICS members. This is far closer to Chinese interests than it was previously.

Global times Oct 10, 2023: China, Saudi Arabia launch joint naval special operations exercise There is literally no point in doing this if China wasn't open to the possibility of a global conflict.

China may be on the other side of the world, but their current allies/partners are not. If China refuses to take a more strongly defined stance towards these regional conflicts then the prospects of BRICS as anything remotely effective against western imperialism look grim.

On pragmatism, it is undeniable China "lost" out over the Pelosi fiasco about "red lines". Yes nothing happened and pragmatism won the day, humanity can have a sigh of relief. Of course I too prefer to not have war, but China set up a red line and the US called the bluff successfully. This is precisely what I mean by "the only solution is confrontation" not because it is our(communists) choice but the path the US continues to take against all reason. The only difference is Russia as problematic as they are with their own BS "red lines", they did actually declare war, in the Pelosi/Taiwan case, well pragmatism for now.

Finally cold calculating pragmatism isn't always the point either, the global south already talks about "climate justice" and people here are talking about decolonization based on the justice for Palestine/injustices of Israel, I mean I can't wait until the year is 2045 when vast amounts of the global south are completely uninhabitable.

This is my most biggest fear, we are doing nothing, everyone just casually hopes for common sense to prevail(those that care, others don't even give a shit), pragmatism will win the day we hope and dream. Meanwhile, war after war, crimes, injustices, inaction. Nazism is back. We don't time have until 2100, we don't have time until China is completely communist, we may not even last to 2050. I hate to say it, if we don't fight soon there may as well be nothing left to fight over.

I appreciate I may be more alarmist then others at these points but in the end if I could have even just one take, I think Xi meeting US politicians right now is an extremely bad look, callous even. I am not happy and I'm comfortable calling this a very rare CPC L. I accept it was probably an unfortunate coincidence, but nevertheless I hate it.

We'll see what comes of the Borrell meeting too, I have no expectations whatsoever but maybe something something.

for every post on this thread Jeb will kill 10 IDF members with his bare hands

Unfortunate result in the Ecuadorian presidential election, but this guy will only serve as president until 2025 when the next regularly scheduled election takes place.