Bulletins and News Discussion from April 29th to May 5th, 2024 - Césaire's Boomerang - COTW: United States
Bulletins and News Discussion from April 29th to May 5th, 2024 - Césaire's Boomerang - COTW: United States
Also known as "Foucault's boomerang" or the "imperial boomerang".
Image is of a sniper on the roof of the Indiana Memorial Union at Indiana State University, overlooking a student protest.
The Imperial Boomerang is the observation that the tactics of mass oppression and totalitarianism used by Western countries in their colonies and neocolonies will, sooner or later, return home to be used against the citizens of those Western countries. While the people living at the time of WW2 were, rightfully, in deep shock of the concentration camps used by Nazi Germany, those paying attention to what was occurring in Africa would not have been terribly surprised. Concentration camps were used in several countries in order to separate out ethnic groups and place them in more easily controlled environments which aimed to prevent them from rising up and fighting back against the Western governments which exploited them. There is the additional factor of governments taking notes from each other - Hitler was inspired by America's racial segregation and genocide of indigenous groups, which author Carroll Kakel among others have written books on.
Today, the totalitarian strategies used by the Zionist entity in occupied Palestine are being brought home to Western countries as the American Reich and its global influence accelerate in their decline. Gaza was and is a cyber-concentration camp, with digital surveillance taking place alongside old-fashioned techniques of paying informants. Aside from being an unsinkable aircraft carrier and disrupting the entire Middle East, Israel's primary role appears to be to generate new ways to monitor entire populations. Propaganda about China being an authoritarian police state with social credit scores and AI which knows where everybody is at all times was probably created, at least in part, to deflect attention from Israel doing those exact things. The paranoid and flimsy American regime with its gerontocratic upper circles now use these tactics at home: cracking down on any and all protestors with political views left of Mussolini; placing snipers on roofs ready to fire at the slightest provocation; and arresting organization leaders. Pegasus has wormed its way around the world, with a notable recent example in Poland, in which the previous conservative government used the spyware to monitor the current liberal ruling party. The Israeli military, experts only in killing children and not actual warfare, have trained the police of other nations.
It would be easy to end the preamble there, on a gloomy note about the brick wall - or, indeed, iron curtain - that upstart left-wing groups are up against. What history has shown is that these regimes are, in fact, beatable. Liberation movements around the world have found ways to counter imperialism, even if they required wars in which millions of their countrymen were murdered. The legacy of Israeli propaganda psyops and digital tracking is not victory, as Hamas demonstrated on October 7th and continues to show with every ambush executed and every Merkava destroyed. The legacy of Western military defence equipment is not success, demonstrated by every missile fired by Hezbollah and Iran which hits Israel. The legacy of the American Navy is not competence, with a naval blockade of the Red Sea still maintained after months by one of the poorest countries on the planet.
The protests of at least the last couple decades have been marked by failure to produce material results: from those against the Iraq War, to Occupy Wall Street, to the BLM protests of 2020. Of course, it would be silly to tell American protestors to start digging tunnels. But sooner or later, the failure of Western protest movements will be overcome, and a more effective strategy will be devised, in order to deflect the boomerang.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is the United States! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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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 daily-ish 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 (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
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.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
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.
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.
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Negotiations for a potential hostage deal and truce in Gaza appeared to reach a critical moment Saturday, with Hamas set to offer its response to the latest proposal, and Israel indicating an offensive in the city of Rafah could be imminent if no agreement is reached.
With Arab and American mediators pressing intensely for a temporary ceasefire, several reports Saturday said Hamas was prepared to accept the latest proposal, in light of assurances from the United States that there will be a “sustainable cessation” of the war.
It was not clear whether such a response would be a straightforward approval of the proposal on offer, or one that comes with various caveats.
A Hamas delegation was in Cairo Saturday, as was CIA Director William Burns, for meetings with Egyptian mediators.
The truce deal is believed to be composed of several potential phases, with the first phase seeing a limited release of “humanitarian” hostages for a truce of several weeks, while further phases featuring further releases and a more solid ceasefire are possible.
Citing unidentified sources, the Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper said American mediators had promised that Israel would completely withdraw from Gaza under the third and final phase, and the war would effectively end.
An unnamed Hamas source gave a similar statement to Israel’s Channel 12 news.
Hamas, Al-Quds reported, was for the first time poised to agree to launch the first phase without a guarantee of the war’s end, based on those assurances and its belief that it still holds significant cards in the form of hostages who will not be released under the first phase.
In response to the reports, an Israeli official, speaking anonymously to the media, repeated Jerusalem’s insistence that “Israel will under no circumstances agree to end the war as part of an agreement to free our abductees.”
The official added: “The IDF will enter Rafah and destroy the remaining Hamas battalions there — whether there is a temporary pause to free our captives or not.”
The same official put out a second statement later to the same effect, saying saying any claims Israel had agreed to end the war “are untrue.”
A number of media outlets named the official who put out the two statements as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Signaling discord within Israeli leadership, war cabinet minister Benny Gantz criticized those comments.
“I advise the ‘official sources’ and all other decision-makers to wait for official updates, to act with restraint and not to become hysterical due to political reasons,” he said in a statement, apparently referencing far-right pressure on Netanyahu not to agree to a deal that could be perceived as a win for Hamas.
Gantz added that when Hamas does submit a response, the war cabinet will convene to deliberate it.
Saudi newspaper Asharq also reported that an agreement was close and echoed that Hamas would announce its response to the proposal “in the coming hours.”
The Palestinian, Saudi and Channel 12 reports all said that the US had guaranteed Israel will withdraw all troops from Gaza upon completion of the third phase of the agreement. None of the reports included comments from US officials.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Israel had given Hamas one week to agree to the hostage deal on the table, or it would launch its long-pledged offensive in Gaza’s southernmost city.
The latest proposal for the hostage deal reportedly includes a first phase lasting up to 40 days, in which at least 33 of 128 hostages held in Gaza would be released, along with an IDF withdrawal from parts of the Strip.
The first phase would allow for the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza and the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for hostages.
The potential second phase would last for 42 days and see the release of all other living hostages and the sides completing arrangements for sustainable calm in Gaza.
The third and final phase, which would see an exchange of bodies, would also last 42 days.
The Hamas source quoted by Channel 12 said “compromises were reached” regarding the number of Palestinian security prisoners to be released in exchange for each Israeli hostage.
The issue of allowing the import of “dual-use” items into the Strip — supplies that Israel fears could also be used for military purposes — was still being ironed out, the Hamas source added.
“The results today will be different. We have reached an agreement over many points, and a few points remain,” one Egyptian security source told Reuters.
An unnamed Palestinian official with knowledge of the mediation efforts said that “things look better this time, but whether an agreement is on hand would depend on whether Israel has offered what it takes for that to happen.”
Egyptian media on Saturday reported “noticeable progress” in talks to secure a deal. A consensus has been reached over many of the disputed points, the Egyptian Al-Qahera news reported, without elaborating.
On Friday, the Axios news site quoted senior Israeli officials who said they saw “early indications” that Hamas could agree to the first stage of the Egyptian-crafted, Israeli-backed proposal for a deal — involving the release of women, children, the elderly and the sick — even without an Israeli commitment to end the war, but with fewer hostages to be freed in exchange for more Palestinian security prisoners.
If so, the Israeli officials expect Hamas to set stricter requirements that could lower the number of hostages it will agree to release on so-called “humanitarian” grounds, and increase the number of Palestinian security prisoners to be freed in return, the news site said.
Netanyahu has been threatening to enter Rafah for months, claiming repeatedly during that period that an invasion was imminent.
Possible Hasbra, wait until Hamas agrees, don't believe in "there's slight possibility small chances twinkie pinkie promises"
IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE TO ME, GIVEN THE MASSIVE PROTESTS IN TEL AVIV DEMANDING THE RABID DOG NETANYAHU ACCEPT THE CEASEFIRE
US assurances are literally worth nothing. Decades full of endless examples of that
"Hamas willing to negotiate, sick of settlers whining and demands."