Image is of Yemen seizing the first ship in its blockade of Israel (the Galaxy Leader) with a helicopter raid.
Alternate title: What If It Was The Bab El-Womandeb And It Was Just For The Ladies?
Ansarallah is a key component of the broader Resistance movement, backed by Iran, and has been a stalwart member in engineering the ongoing collapse of Zionism. It has steadily escalated both its rhetoric and, rarely nowadays, its actions, proving that the mythical “red line” might actually exist in the world after all, after going MIA in both Russia and China. It has been striking first Israel-owned ships heading through the Bab el-Mandeb - the strait that leads into the Red Sea and then to the Suez Canal - and, recently, has demonstrated its promise that any ships that intend to dock in Israel will be attacked. While this is really only half a blockade, the cost of going around Africa is significant, and Western insurance companies really don’t like it when their ships get blasted by missiles and drones. Several shipping companies have already stated their intention to alter/stop shipping routes through the Red Sea, trying to prompt the West to find a “solution”.
Despite US naval presence in the area, Yemen possesses the ability to strike the oil refining facilities of the Gulf monarchies, leaving the US in a very difficult position. If they attack Yemen, then not only do Western ships risk being attacked directly, but those oil refineries may go up in smoke depending on if they help the West - and global oil prices will skyrocket, in an already declining world economy - and it might cost several Western leaders their leadership positions, including Biden himself. A regional war could ultimately tumble into worldwide chaos.
Equally, however, the US cannot afford to lose Israel. It is the single most important American imperial outpost, perhaps alongside Taiwan. If Zionism is destroyed as a local destabilizing influence, then the Russia-China-Iran axis will find itself in a leadership position over the region. Israeli military losses in Gaza increase every single day as they advance further into the labyrinth death trap under the obligation to show some kind of military victory, with Hamas’ strategy of attrition taking its toll. And Hezbollah sits there, having destroyed most of the border infrastructure, silently threatening the obliteration of Israel’s infrastructure under the rain of a hundred thousand missiles.
As world attention gradually shifts away from the Gaza genocide, we continue to approach the brink.
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Your Tuesday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Thursday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Saturday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
The Country of the Week is Yemen! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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Last week’s thread is here.
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.
Substitute this Putin naivety with the current Chinese Communist Party and their bullshit rhetoric about “cooperation” and “coexistence” with the US and its almost the exact same thing. The sad part is watching it all unfold in real time again.
You want Xi to say openly that they are preparing for War with the US and do not want “cooperation” and “coexistence” that is deranged.
I suggest perhaps there is a rather large difference between keeping your cards close to your chest like you suggest here and having fucking state meetings with the top US corporate ghouls along with the entirety of the imperialist governing figure heads while the US is openly supporting yet another genocide and literally all China does is the equivalent of thoughts and payers(and excuses). And I fully admit China does good things economicaly for the world, loans, BRI etc is all cool good and based but it is not going to be enough to actualy change anything, save lives or even fight imperialism, you give with one hand and then look indifferently while the world is destroyed, the global working class is sacrificed? Yeah fuck that gaslighting shit.
I suggest you also go back and read their garbage state media narrative about “how the world is looking forward to this meeting”(the world didn’t even know or “care” about this meeting until it was confirmed like 1 week prior) while the reality is the entirety of the western world is entirely racist, xenophobic and would rather wish the Chinese would die and the CPC be destroyed. Yet they were out there deluding themselves about how important their diplomatic shit is, again in the middle of a genocide.
I sure hope they’re actualy preparing for war, but alas we saw how the Pelosi shit turned out so who knows really.
International relations speak wank I don’t care if they say they love Kissinger and gruesome newsom because it does not matter and (they don’t really) it is apart of the dance they have to do to seem reasonable and rational compared to the US to project the image of stable multi polar order and fair dealings as opposed to the declining US one. What I am hearing is you want China to start exporting the revolution again and begin to openly confront the US militarily just say that. We know the US is bad you don’t have to tell me that. Also imagine starting WW3 over pelosi going to the reddit island I am glad you did not get to call that shot. I guarantee you that CPC has a better understanding on the situation then you or me and choosing to believe that they are being fooled by the US and do not understand their intentions is chauvinism of the highest order they have a strategy that is playing out and you may not like it but don’t insinuate that they are too foolish or deluded to recognize the situation do not fall to chauvinism.
their point is China never stops “dancing”. It’s all part of a masquerade to appear reasonable that they never break, they just repeatedly fall for American sweet talk and perfidy over and over
What would you like them to do instead.
Orient their foreign policy to be more oppositional and start fomenting revolutions, acting more like the USSR or DPRK. They bided their time for long enough it’s time to prove whether they are actually on our side or not
You want them to export the revolution ok cool. Should they do it to India,Philippines,Mongolia,Kazakhstan the other former soviet republics/ Russia?! what kind of support should they provide and what would the expected consequences be. I would like the revolution to spread as well I just think in this moment it is ill timed and the approach towards aligning the world against the US is a more sound strategy then attempting cold war redux this time for real.
We went along with China saying they have a long term plan for communism and that they are merely biding their time. They are going to have to deliver at some point
And they should first focus their subversive efforts on the enemy of the proletariat, the empire and its proxies and allies- not former soviet nations but western ones