Summary: lie, lie, lie, human shields, tragedy of war, lie, lie, lie, protection of innocent life, respect human life, lie, lie, lie, limit civilian casualties, minimize civilian harm, lie, lie, lie, etc.

What the United States has said so far about the strike at a refugee camp in northern Gaza

Several United States officials are saying Israel is not targeting civilians and is working to minimize harm to people in Gaza, despite a massive explosion Tuesday at the Jabalya refugee camp that has resulted in many casualties.

Lt. Col. Richard Hecht of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN that the airstrike was targeting a Hamas commander, whom he accused of “hiding, as they do, behind civilians.” Civilian deaths, Hecht also said, are “the tragedy of war.”

Hamas however has strongly denied the presence of one of its leaders in camp, Hazem Qassem, a spokesperson for the group said in a statement Tuesday.

Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Tuesday that the Israeli military is not “deliberately targeting civilians, unlike Hamas."

Ryder said he could not “speak to individual Israeli strikes” but said the Pentagon does “care about civilian casualties, and we’ve made it both clear publicly and privately about our concern for the protection of innocent life and the respect for the law of war.”

The White House said it has seen “indications” that Israel is trying to protect civilians. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby called the deaths as a result of the strike on the Jabalya refugee camp “all tragedies” and said the US would “continue to work with the Israelis about the need to respect human life, and to try to limit civilian casualties.”

Asked if he would go as far as to say that Israel is not successfully minimizing civilian casualties in Gaza, Kirby replied: “It's obvious to us that they are trying to minimize [civilian casualties]."

Meanwhile, the State Department would not comment on the Israeli strike on the Jabalya refugee camp except to say generally that the US has said to Israel that they must minimize civilian harm.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller would not comment on whether or not the US has laid down any “red lines” for Israel or whether the US would accept the killing of a Hamas commander in a civilian area as justification for the deaths of scores of civilian casualties.

https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news-10-31-23/h_b90a9acf473c37d1a49d0b73d2d29a9d

Anarchists should bring back propaganda of the deed and fucking [redacted] Bomber Blinken

CW: murder of gazan civilians by tank as reported by sky news

https://youtu.be/zpoMznHaAVI

The newschads now have the most commented threads on Hexbear - in first, second, and third place. Congratulations to us, but infinitely more congratulations to the brave Palestinian resistance who is opposing the genocidal Zionist entity who has murdered thousands of innocent civilians in their impotent rage.

The Country of the Week is Lebanon!

As mentioned in the preamble, feel free to post or recommend any material related to Lebanon, whether from a thousand years ago or yesterday. You can post it anywhere in the thread, but you can also reply to this comment if you wish.

If you're feeling particularly ambitious and want homework, you could take on any or all of these questions (no reward, but I'll be very proud of you):

• Who are the main political actors? Are they compradors, nationalists, international socialists, something else?
• What are the most salient domestic political issues; those issues that repeatedly shape elections over the last 10, 20 years. Every country has its quirks that complicate analysis - for example, Brexit in the UK.
• What is the country's history? You don't have to go back a thousand years if that's not relevant, and I'm counting "history" as basically anything that has happened over a year ago.
• What factions exist, historically and currently? If there is an electoral system, what are the major parties and their demographic bases? Are there any minor parties with large amounts of influence? Independence movements? Religious groups?
• How socially progressive or conservative are they? Is there equality for different ethnic groups, or are some persecuted? Do they have LGBTQIA+ rights? Have they improved over time, or gotten worse?
• What role do foreign powers play in the country’s politics and economy? Is there a particular country nearby or far away that is nearly inseparable from them, for good or bad reasons? Is their trade dominated by exports/imports to one place? Are they exploited, exploiters, or something in between?
• If applicable, what is the influence of former colonial relationships on the modern economy and politics?
• Is the country generally stable? Do you think there will be a coup at some point in the future, and if so, what faction might replace them?

Last week's country was Palestine.

This is our Geopolitics Reading List so far! Please chime in with suggestions!

General Theory:

• Super Imperialism, by Michael Hudson.
• Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century: Globalization, Super-Exploitation, and Capitalism’s Final Crisis, by John Smith.
• Superexploitation and the Imperialist Drive of Capitalism: How Marini's 'Dialectics of Dependency' Goes beyond Marx's 'Capital', by Andy Higginbottom.
• Capital Volume 3 Lecture Series, 32 videos, 10-15 minutes each, by Andy Higginbottom.
• World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction, by Immanuel Wallerstein.
• Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization and Empire, by Radhika Desai.
• Capitalism, Coronavirus and War: A Geopolitical Economy, by Radhika Desai.

Canada:

• Canada in the World: Settler Capitalism and the Colonial Imagination, by Tyler Shipley.

Chile:

• 1000 Days of Revolution: Chilean Communists on the Lessons of Popular Unity (I cannot personally find an online version).
• Santiago Boys Podcast, analyzing Allende's government and Cybersyn.

United States:

• Drug Cartels Do Not Exist: Narcotrafficking in US and Mexican Culture, by Oswaldo Zavala.

Venezuela:

• Objective Conditions in Venezuela: Maduro’s Defensive Strategy and Contradictions Among the People, a longform article by Steve Ellner.

Qassam Commander: We announce that more than 50 #Israelis were killed during the clashes that took place during the past hours, and we confirm that there are still more powerful Qassams. All hail to our sisters in the Al-Quds Brigades who are confronting the incursions alongside the Qassam Brigades.

It seems like every other month or so the US proposes and alternative to BRI that will downfall China. There was Blue Dot, the Middle Eastern Corrider that probably isn't happening because of the war in Gaza, and now a railway in Central Africa. Westerners claim BRI is a huge failure when the conference for its shows otherwise. Portugal and Italy being told to leave by the US doesn't really indicate that it's a failure either, as hard as that is for Redditors to hear. Our president-elect even wants in on BRI projects while still trying to stay on good terms with Taiwan.

There's obviously a lot of work to be done in countering the US empire, but its downfall has been going on for a while. It's just a very slow one that will probably go the way of the British Empire, which was initially the worlds largest creditor before becoming the worlds largest debtor after WW1. The days of century-long downfalls like the Roman Empire don't really happen with the more modern ones.

As of now the groundwork is being laid out. The global south has options and it has a bigger impact than people realize.

Evacuation warning to AJ correspondent ‘very worrying’: Media watchdog

We reported earlier that the husband of Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza City, Youmna ElSayed, received a threatening phone call from the Israeli army telling the family to leave their home immediately, as explosions were going off all around their neighbourhood.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Khadija Patel, chairperson of the International Press Institute, described the call as a “very worrying” development.

“This is an indication of deliberate targeting of journalists, something that we are concerned about as part of a trend that we are seeing within this conflict,” she added.

“We want to … urge the Israeli forces to protect the lives and work of journalists in this war.”

[...]

And here’s Youmna ElSayed’s live broadcast a short while ago, giving details about the phone call her family received.

-Al Jazeera

Video

Al Jazeera's @YoumnaElSayed17, reporting from Gaza City, explains how she received the threat warning her to leave her home as heavy bombardment is heard in the background.

Nitter

The Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq targeted the American occupation base, "Ain al-Assad" in western Iraq, with two drones, and they directly hit their targets.

Hezbollah's 'Ridwan' Special Forces posted a cryptic message on Telegram:

وَٱسْتَمِعْ يَوْمَ يُنَادِ ٱلْمُنَادِ مِن مَّكَانٍۢ قَرِيبٍ

'And listen! On that Day the caller will call out from a near place."

It is an excerpt from the Quran.

Israeli strikes near Indonesian hospital in gaza, just moments ago, source is aljazeera

Israeli Defense Minister: We are not interested in an additional war, but we are ready on the northern border

Jewish fascist uses the terms monster and Nazi but not to accurately describe himself.

Former Israeli minister calls for ‘erasure’ of Gaza

Galit Distel Atbaryan, a member of parliament from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, has tweeted that Israel’s divided politicians should unite and instead erase “all of Gaza from the face of the earth”.

Distel Atbaryan, who was public diplomacy minister until mid-October, and was previously information minister, wrote the incendiary tweet after she said she viewed footage of Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7.

The politician added that “Gazan monsters” had the option of heading to Egypt or dying, and said that there should be “fire and smoke on the heads of Nazis” in the occupied West Bank.

-Al Jazeera

A man throws a bunch of mice into a packed McDonald’s in London to protest against Israel. He shouts “Free Palestine”

Funniest form of direct action I've ever seen

why is he giving a shoutout to will menaker now? what's going on?

Heaving himbo Hasan hums Hamas hymn; huffs Hummus heartily

BBC had an MSF doctor on and asked her about what's happening in Gaza, pretty brutal, CW: discussion of violence against children

t.me/DDGeopolitics/90419

One month after barbaric bombardment swift still haven't switched off isnreel from civilized world, curious

Anyone know of any good articles or otherwise detailed explanations of why the one-state solution is the only correct solution, and how ethnostates like Israel do not in fact have a “right to exist”?

I guess the latest Israeli PR move is to have some journalists go on Twitter and claim to have seen some video of all these “Hamas atrocities”. No you can’t see it or verify it, just trust me bro.

Edit: this is what I’m refereeing to

https://nitter.cz/benjaminbutter/status/1720114810191282512#m

https://nitter.cz/Orlygoldschmidt/status/1720110445699240012#m

https://youtu.be/pcQ8Fl6qJsg

Houthi launches

people who wear shorts in sub freezing weather will be the shock troops of the revolution tbh

BRG posting hits again

Is there a word or phrase that describes a situation where something is undefined/unexplained but to create misdirection it's still mentioned over and over and over again?

The NYT editorial board came out with this: A Humanitarian Pause in Gaza.

I did a ctrl-f for "pause" and it seems they didn't actually define what a humanitarian pause is or even could be in theory. They did say this...

A pause in hostilities [is not] the equivalent of a cease-fire.

That's like saying an apple is not the equivalent of an orange.

This is from ~30m ago. "Releases"? Is this really the first time Al Jazeera shared the video?

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/11/4/israel-hamas-war-live-heavy-israeli-bombing-pounds-northern-gaza?update=2464846