Image is of destruction and damage inside Israel, sourced from this article.


Iran and Israel have struck each other many times over the last few days. There has been a general focus on military facilities and headquarters by both sides, though Israel has also struck oil facilities, civilian structures and hospitals, and in return for this, Iran has struck major scientific centers and the Haifa oil facilities.

Israel appears to have three main aims. First, to collapse the Iranian state, either through shock and breakdown by killing enough senior officials, or via some sort of internal military coup. Second, to try and destroy Iranian nuclear sites and underground missile cities, or at least to paralyze them long enough to achieve the first and third goals. And third, to bring the US into a direct conflict with Iran. This is because the US better equipped to fight them than Israel is (though victory would still not be guaranteed depending on what Iran chooses to do).

Iranian nuclear facilities are hidden deep underground (800 meters), far beyond the depth range of even the most powerful bunker busters (~70 meters or so), and built such that the visible ground entrances are horizontally far away in an unknown direction from the actual underground chambers. Only an extremely competent full-scale American bombing force all simultaneously using multiple of the most powerful conventional (perhaps even nuclear) bunker busters could even hypothetically hope to breach them (and we have seen how, in practice, American bunker busters have largely failed to impair or deter Ansarallah). There are several analysts on both sides who have concluded that it is entirely impossible to physically prevent Iran from building nukes.

I fully expect the US to join the war. I believe the current ambiguity is a deliberate invention of the US while they work to move their military assets into position, and as soon as they are ready, the US will start bombing Iran. After that, Iran’s leadership must - if they haven’t already - harden their hearts, and strike back with no fear, or risk following the path of Libya, Syria, and Iraq, either into either surrender, occupation, or annihilation. Every day where they do not possess a nuke is a day where lives are being lost and cities are being bombed.


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

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

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.


  • Quaxamilliom [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    23 days ago

    As an Iranian it is really heat warming watching all of humanity come together with great joy in seeing us bomb the shit out of the zionist regime. Never in my life have I ever seen so many people united and so happy in seeing anyone get bombed, really goes to show how fucking hated zionists are throughout the world.

  • daniyeg [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    24 days ago

    they’re cutting off the internet to the rest of the world, hexbear has been already blocked since this morning. goodbye comrades see you on the other side 07

    p.s: the emoji isn’t loading i hope it’s not a ppb or something.

  • MarmiteLover123 [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.net
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    24 days ago

    Everyone, while this is not news, If you’ve been following my posts over the past few months, you can see that I’ve been covering the US military buildup in the Middle East against Iran quite extensively. Seeing it all come to fruition after ringing the alarm bell for months, it’s nightmarish, I’m feeling sick honestly. Everyone in Iran that uses this website, please stay safe.

  • Quaxamilliom [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    19 days ago

    Im Iranian, if Iran doesn’t strike back HARD and immediately go for the bomb, there will be a coup change here by the people for a government that can and will actually protect us. It pisses me off that all these years these ‘reformist’ fools have been trying to play nice with the west that has fucked us decade after decade instead of cozying up with China and getting weapons, defense pacts, and more than just economic deals with them and Russia as well.

  • Still in awe of how shit UK military security is. Palestine Action broke into the RAF base that underpins Britain’s global air power projection, minced around on e-scooters, disabled multiple strategic assets, and left without being caught. This, while the UK is potentially days from joining a regional war in the Middle East and still deep in a proxy war with Russia. Given this, the Heathrow power incident, airport drones, etc,. there seems to be a very real window for adversaries to exploit and cause significant disruption inside the UK - largely unopposed.

  • halfpipe [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    19 days ago

    It’s 2005, I’m watching a commercial for the new Harry Potter while we destroy the Middle East.

    It’s 2015, I’m watching a commercial for the new Harry Potter while we destroy the Middle East.

    It’s 2025, I’m watching a commercial for the new Harry Potter while we destroy the Middle East.

  • LoveYourself [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    21 days ago

    This is actually the best Palestine Action direct action so far and I am very happy to see it.

    BREAKING: Palestine Action break into RAF Brize Norton and damage two military aircrafts.

    Flights depart daily from the base to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.

    From Cyprus, British planes collect intelligence, refuel fighter jets and transport weapons to commit genocide in Gaza.

    Not only did actionists manage to break into Britain’s largest air force base (RAFBrizeNorton), they also escaped undetected.

    Ordinary people can take direct action to intervene in the genocide.

    https://xcancel.com/Pal_action/status/1935926198304985569

  • CleverOleg [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    24 days ago

    I am having flashbacks to 2003. If you are not old enough or not American… I wish I could be more articulate on this. It’s a feeling of foreboding because events are in motion and there is nothing in the universe that can or will stop it. From the perspective of the mainstream media and US politicians, it’s like they’ve learned nothing. Everyone just agrees “this is what we have to do”, and there is no questioning how we move forward.

    But one thing is very, very different; and this is what I’m hanging my hopes on. The bloodlust from the American people just isn’t there like it was in 2003. I know there were some people who were against it but really, pretty much everyone was. All the Barbaras and Debbies (as Hasan says) were on board. All your “apolitical” folks were for it. Everyone had an opinion that was all of 3 minutes old and it was always the company line. The manufacturing consent machine said it had to be done, and the people bought it.

    Before Iraq, Americans viewed actual hot, boots-on-the-ground war in the way we view sanctions today: why not do it, it’s easy our military is great we’ll be in and out easy. Saddam is bad and scary and maybe he has WMDs and maybe he doesn’t but probably a good idea to invade, just to be sure. I do think the one enduring legacy of Iraq on the American psyche is that we are now snake bitten on invading other countries (this is ofc a good thing).

    That is not the case at all right now, the people don’t buy it, and honestly things could not be more different. No one wants intervention. Obviously what the people want won’t stop this train if it’s hell bent on attacking Iran, but I do think it’s something.

  • Torenico [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    22 days ago

    Boy… October 7th really did set things in motion huh? Looking back at it, when we first saw the videos of our brave men and women crossing the Wall of Hate with motorcycles, pickup trucks, paragliders… didn’t we all feel something really big was going to happen?

    There is no going back now, we live in a new world. The brave palestinians who launched an all-out assault against the zionist monster changed the world, with nothing to lose and a lot to win. May that be the date that marks the beginning of “israel’s” final moments on Earth.

  • glimmer_twin [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    19 days ago

    Fuck it, sink the carriers, close the strait, bomb the oil fields. I’m done with this shit. This world isn’t worth saving anyway. Listening to the coverage of this and that speech was the cherry on top. Burn it all down.

  • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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    20 days ago
    Simplicius: Israel Buckles as Iran War Shifts to New Drag-Out Phase

    I have full access to this piece as it’s free, and it’s pretty long, so I will once again be summarizing.

    • Iran just concluded talks in Geneva with Western representatives and failed to reach a deal as Iran will still not end enrichment, will not end its missile program, and will not negotiate until Israel stops attacking them. Simplicius points out the hypocrisy of the West vis-a-vis Russia (“Russia must end hostilities and withdraw from Ukraine entirely, THEN we can negotiate! Israel, of course, doesn’t need to do the same thing with Iran”).
    • Iran keeping to its original aims is encouraging, indicating that they think an attritional war with Israel is likely to work. That they’re bluffing is certainly possible but doesn’t seem probable.
    • Iran has been taking significant damage, though with Israel reusing the same videos a lot, it takes a while to properly analyse things. Radar sites have been hit, and there are about 80 verified hits on Iranian ballistic missile launchers.
    • Simplicius doesn’t know how many ballistic missiles Iran has (well, nobody except Iran really knows) but agrees it’s somewhere in the low thousands (~3000, maybe more). Some sources claim 1500 have been fired already, while more precise graphs count 500 total launched.
    • Iran can produce up to 300 ballistic missiles per month according to Western estimates. As long as Iran fires 10 or less missiles per day, they can keep firing basically indefinitely without wearing down stockpiles for when they’re critically needed (e.g. the US joins the war).
    • Israel’s ability to intercept these missiles has been very degraded, so Iran could actually fire even less and achieve the same result. Iran could be thinking that they’ll just fire ~5 per day and slowly build up stockpiles over the course of a long attritional war (months or years), even if they lose a couple missiles every day to Israeli bombing. We are seeing this in practice - that Iran is firing less missiles for the same overall result.
    • Iranian senior official Mohsen Rezaee has publically stated that Iran has fired “over 400 missiles” and “over 600 drones” and that “dozens of missiles have hit Israel”, which seems to match the graphs carefully counting up to about ~500 missile launches. On the face of it, this means a ~75% interception rate for Israel, and that’s certainly a valid way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is that many of these missiles were very old missiles that were used to waste interceptors so that more advanced missiles could get through later, and Israel itself is admitting that its interception rate is rapidly falling.
    • Rezaee, back in March, stated that they knew that war with Israel is inevitable and was taking precautions. He says Iran’s “missile capabilities” (a delightfully ambiguous word) were ramped up by 5 or 6 times. The most sensible way to interpret “capabilities” is probably “production”. It’s not clear whether this means production has been increased to the Western estimate of 300 per month, or if it’s now substantially higher than that, but regardless, it’s clear that Iran is following Russia’s example, implementing a massive military-industrial campaign which dramatically outproduces the West.
    • He also stated that Iran, as a precaution, already removed its most important nuclear program materials to safe locations, so what Israel is currently striking is achieving very little. There are flashy images of precise missile strikes by Israel, but these could very much be striking empty facilities. And even the West admits limited effectiveness overall despite the precision; e.g. at Natanz there’s only damage to electrical components, which could be replaced in mere months.
    • Trump delaying might point to a growing doubt that they could even destroy Fordow, but Simplicius admits that his words are hard to interpret given that he similarly lied about extending negotiations just before Israel struck.
    • Simplicius regards Israel to be on what is essentially a genocidal ponzi scheme - you start a conflict, it goes badly, and so to distract from it you start a new conflict, which goes badly, and to distract from that you start a new conflict, which goes badly, and so on. This strange strategy matches the rhetoric of some Zionists which apparently want to go for Qatar, Pakistan, and/or Turkey “after Iran”.
    • This strategy is now causing very major economic damage to Israel. Some shipping companies, like Maersk, are refusing to go to Haifa, Israel’s only operational deepwater/hub port (as Ashdod is too close to Gaza and Eliat under Red Sea blockade via Yemen). The airports are under lockdown, and Israelis are being forced to remain in the country.
    • Notable Israeli strikes on Iran have similarly declined, particularly as Iran is ruthlessly hunting Mossad operatives in a dragnet across the nation and is striking Israeli intelligence sites within Israel itself. The shock phase appears like it may be over, and we may now be in the attritional phase. Only US intervention might save Israel, but given Iran’s options to counter the US both militarily and economically, Trump is right to hesitate if he isn’t merely bluffing.
  • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    23 days ago

    WaPo article

    Israelis reeling from Iranian barrages brace for a new kind of war

    With ballistic missiles slamming into buildings in Tel Aviv, Israelis say they are losing their long-held sense of security.

    As you can imagine - they are very unhappy that the chickens came home to roost. The comments are good when sorted by “recommended”.

    Can you now imagine what the Palestinians in Gaza must have endured?