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Microblogging like a boss. Posting about: #politics #ir #culture #philosophy #history #tech
For a moment I was sure that it's an article about the TV show, but nope 😐
#nottheonion #news #hitler #drwho #tv #uk
Yesterday saw massive protests across Israel, pushing back against the Gaza war’s expansion and demanding a ceasefire deal to free the hostages.
One photo from the rallies blew up online, triggering a mini right-wing meltdown. The signs read: "Smotrich, I’ll sit on your face before we settle in Gaza" and "Ben Gvir, I’ll sit on your face before we settle in Gaza".
Tbf, it lands better in Hebrew (the words for "to settle" and "to sit" are similar).
#israel #gazawar #israelprotests #hostages #leftycringe #bengvir #smotrich
For a moment I thought that my phone froze.
She's such a weirdo 😐
📱 Triggernometry | #ukrainewar #russia #ukraine #usa #kisin #annecoulter
Listen to the episode:
📱 YouTube
📱 Spotify
Roses are red
Violets cause distress
Audio of Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson arguments from Marriage Story used to scare off wolves in the US
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#nottheonion #meme
Tbf, the idea behind the original infographic isn't wrong.
There's a difference between "Anarchism" as a political theory, and the word "anarchy" the way it is being used now. Furthermore, those angsty teens who spray this logo on walls often don't understand the true meaning of it.
Yet this distinction doesn't make Anarchism any less juvenile and utopian, and incompatible with human nature.
#anarchism #politicalthought #philosophy #jk #anarchy
Yes, that Mosab. Son of a Hamas founder, turned Shin Bet informant, and now a pro-Israel public speaker and a writer.
Look, I genuinely feel bad for the guy. His life story is a psychological meat grinder. Grew up in a death cult, got abused, got disillusioned, defected, and has been screaming into the void ever since. You don’t walk out of that clean. You crawl out bleeding, paranoid, and convinced everyone wants to steal your foreskin.
But this? “Muslims get circumcised to steal Jewish identity”? Bro. What are we even doing here. You sound like a conspiracy YouTuber who hasn’t slept since 2007.
There’s a difference between righteous anger and just becoming a caricature of yourself. This is the latter. It’s not even offensive, but just sad.
I almost didn’t post this because it feels cruel to take him seriously.
So yeah. Don’t confuse trauma for clarity. And maybe log off.
#israel #palestine #gazawar #conspiracytheories #islamophobia #fakenews
📱 ModernTalmud | Hajj Amin Al-Husseini #elmo #palestine #history #meme #trump #antisemitism #israel
Читать полностью…
Regarding the recent Elmo incident... 🤣
#elmo #usa #israel #meme #trump #antisemitism #piersmorgan
One of the more hilarious right wing antisemitic conspiracy theories that I recently discovered is that "Joos control the porn industry"...
The funny thing is how they made an infographic about it, in the style of similar posters of "Jews controlling the banks"/"Jews controlling Hollywood"/"Jews controlling Biden's gov't" of old.
Connects to that famous "perverted Jew" trope...
#antisemitism #conspiracytheories #beingjewish
💖🇧🇾Touching:
Sergei Tikhanovsky is back on his YouTube channel, five years after being imprisoned by the Lukashenko regime.
He jokes about whether the channel can still be considered his, given that he spent 4 out of its 5 years not running it.
The host shoots back: The better question is, how much prison time we’ll get for that?
✨Translated and subbed by yours truly.✨
📱 Страна для жизни | #belarus #freebelarus #tikhanovsky
📸 Francesco Tosto for BBC
Sergei Tikhanovsky holds a poster of himself to show what he looked like before being arrested
Back in 2020 he was stocky and bearded. Now the face beneath his close-shaven head is gaunt. He says he's lost almost 60kg (132 pounds) in jail, where he spent endless weeks in punishment cells.
"Physically I'm half the size and half the weight," Sergei says. "But my spirit is not broken. Maybe it's even stronger."
A Mensch detected!
The Telegraph | #antisemitism #glastonbury #beingjewish #uk #israel #ppprotesters
For those of you who weren't following the recent developments in #NYC politics: Zohran Mamdani, a firebrand socialist, has won the Democratic ticket for mayor, which makes him the frontrunner in the upcoming election.
Polls project Mamdani winning with support ranging between 35% and 39%. Not exactly a majority, but more a reflection of a fractured centrist-liberal vote, split between independents Cuomo and Adams.
Madmani apparently wants to build gov't-owned supermarkets.
The proposal has been rightfully criticized as a "Soviet-style catastrophe in the making", "absurd", and "economically out of touch". John Catsimatidis, who owns the NYC supermarket chain Gristedes, warned he may shut down stores if Mamdani wins the election.
Mamdani is also known for his outspoken anti-Israel views and strong support for the Palestinian cause. Why a mayoral candidate in an American city(even if it's the Big Apple) feels compelled to weigh in on Middle East geopolitics is unclear, but the 3 other mayoral contenders have taken positions of their own on the issue: firmly pro-Israel.
Regardless, Mamdani has publicly declared that he would arrest the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he visit the city, citing the ICC’s arrest warrant.
This is, of course, an empty promise. A city mayor lacks the authority to arrest a visiting head of state. On top of that, the U.S. is not a member of the ICC, having withdrawn from the Rome Statute in 2002 under President George W. Bush. The Trump administration further distanced the U.S. from the ICC in 2020 by imposing sanctions on the institution.
The course of action also isn't popular with the broader New York public: polling shows 45% oppose acting on the ICC warrant, while only 36% support it. Still, despite its implausibility, Mamdani’s stance may energize his pro-Palestinian base, which might be the whole point.
I've got a few more thoughts and details on this, so expect more posts on the topic very soon.
Pic: parody of "Don't Mess with the Zohan" movie poster, borrowed from 📱Aaron Yerushalmi
#usa #israel #palestine #bibi #madmani #icc #ny #netanyahu #econ
Given all this, it’s hard not to suspect Netanyahu has ulterior motives in prolonging the war.
Could it be a way to cling to power and delay an independent investigation into the failures of October 7?
Or maybe it’s an attempt to divert attention from the criminal charges he’s currently facing in court.
It could also be driven by expansionist ambitions in Gaza. These sentiments have already been voiced by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
Tbf, both ministers are significantly more right-wing and extreme than Netanyahu, and they belong to a different party than him. But the question still stands.
Most of the top Hamas command behind October 7 is dead.
All the senior figures who were in charge when this started are gone:
Ismail Haniyeh
Yahya Sinwar
Mohammed Deif
Marwan Issa
Mohammad Sinwar
Ibrahim Biari
Hamas has been severely degraded. But expecting its complete eradication is unrealistic, unless the plan is to keep this war going for another decade.
And even then, it’s likely that some alternative will rise to take Hamas’s place, leaving us stuck in a forever war while the region sinks deeper into instability.
#iran #gaza #bibi #gazawar #israeliranwar #lebanon #hezbollah #hamas #netanyahu #palestine #israeliranwar
Btw, this reminds me of this sign from anti-Bibi protests of 2020, the sign reads:
"Bibi, you're a dick (and not the kind that I like)"
#israel #israelprotests #antibibi #throwback
Spot on TZARFAT 🥹
📱 Random Facts In The World | #france #israel #hebrew #linguistics
In just five minutes, Coleman Hughes nails exactly how I feel about the Gaza war. Definitely worth a watch.
📱 ColemanHughesOfficial">Coleman Hughes | #gazawar #israel #palestine #gaza #hamas #idf
Full video here, if you want the whole thing.
At least some good news these days.
#azerbaijan #armenia #usa
This quote (unconfirmed, ofc) is circling social media, mostly posted by the same crew who think Hamas are freedom fighters and Russia is liberating Ukraine.
But regardless of whether this quote is authentic, the audacity behind sharing it is what amazes me.
Putin, the guy who literally turned Grozny into a parking lot, and so thoroughly leveled it during the 2nd Chechen War that the UN once called it 'the most destroyed city on Earth', is allegedly crying about human rights.
The man who bombed maternity wards in Mariupol is pretending to be a Geneva Convention enjoyer. Cute.
Reminder: Russia has actually done 1000% of what Israel did in Gaza... and got away with it for years.
Hell, even inside Russia, dissidents don’t disappear... they evaporate.
Meanwhile, Israel gets dragged through the UN ringer, and being subject to more UN resolutions than any other country, with over 140 General Assembly resolutions passed against it since 2015.
And just to be clear: This isn’t "whataboutism". It’s just calling bullshit.
This isn't about excusing any war crimes by the IDF. Unfortunately, I'm convinced that there were plenty of those committed. But using Israel as some moral smokescreen to whitewash the Kremlin’s record? Not on my watch.
Russia isn’t the victim of double standards, but rather a blueprint for how to bulldoze international law and still get invited to the grown-ups’ table.
#russia #israel #gaza #gazawar #chechenwar #russia #ukraine #ukrainewar #palestine #un #doublestandards #bias
Cartoon by Uri Fink, a well-known Israeli cartoonist. Doesn’t need much annotation.
Top: Gaza children scavenging for water in a wasteland.
Bottom left: hostages, skeletal, crouched in dark tunnels.
Bottom right: Hamas, bloated and comfortable, feasting on stolen humanitarian aid like it’s a UN-funded buffet.
📱Uri Fink | #hamas #idf #gaza #netanyahu #gazawar #israel #palestine
Ah yes, classic anarchist dilemma: do we abolish the state or just correct the graffiti fonts? ☕️
#anarchism #politicalthought #philosophy #jk #anarchy
📱 The Daily Show | #elmo #usa #israel #meme #trump #antisemitism
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Selected comments...
#antisemitism #conspiracytheories #beingjewish
To understand the role that Netanyahu’s own calculations played in prolonging the war, we spoke with more than 110 officials in Israel, the United States and the Arab world. These officials — both supporters and critics — have all met, observed or worked with the prime minister since the start of the war and sometimes long before it began. We also reviewed scores of documents, including records of government meetings, communications among officials, negotiation records, war plans, intelligence assessments, secret Hamas protocols and court documents.
For obvious reasons, one of the most sensitive accusations about Netanyahu’s conduct of the war is that he prolonged it for his own personal political benefit. Whether or not they thought he had, everyone we spoke to agreed on one thing: The war’s extension and expansion has been good for Netanyahu.
It is of course impossible to say that Netanyahu made key wartime decisions entirely in the service of his own political survival. His personal quest for power is often inextricably enmeshed with genuine patriotism and the belief, which infuses his public pronouncements, that he alone knows how best to defend Israel. Beyond his own motives, war is a complex, chaotic process with many daily variables that take a course of their own.
His enemies in Lebanon and Iran posed genuine threats to Israel, and their defeat has strengthened Israeli security. And his adversary in Gaza, Hamas, has blocked or slow-walked cease-fire negotiations during key stretches of the war, including at a point early last summer when Netanyahu appeared more willing to reach a truce.
We found that at key stages in the war, Netanyahu’s decisions extended the fighting in Gaza longer than even Israel’s senior military leadership deemed necessary.
American officials failed to persuade Netanyahu that a truce might win him favor in Israel. In one conversation with Netanyahu, White House officials cited polls showing that more than 50 percent of Israelis now supported a hostage deal rather than continued war.
“Not 50 percent of my voters,” Netanyahu replied.
Whether the war in Gaza ends tomorrow or in several months, it has already killed more than 55,000 people. Roughly two million have been displaced. Most of the buildings have already been damaged or destroyed. Hunger is widespread. The daily search for food has become a dystopian deathtrap in which groups of civilians are regularly now killed as they approach the few sites that distribute aid handouts.
Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel was what triggered the war. By refusing to surrender, and by embedding itself in and under hospitals, homes and U.N. facilities, Hamas also bears responsibility for the horrors that followed. And in his initial responses to Hamas’s atrocities in October 2023, Netanyahu acted as any Israeli prime minister might have in his place. But as the conflict turned from an existential battle into a war of attrition — and as other Israeli leaders questioned the logic behind its continuation — it was Netanyahu who dragged it out. It was Netanyahu who refused to plan for a postwar power transfer, and it was Netanyahu who repeatedly delayed reaching a cease-fire. Fearing for his own political survival, Netanyahu hitched his fate to the dreams of Israeli extremists and prolonged the war to sustain their support.
When I ask about the reunion with his family, Sergei lifts a hand to his face and weeps.
His daughter was only four when he was arrested.
"She didn't recognise me," he manages eventually, after a long pause. "Then she threw herself into my arms and we hugged for a long time."
"Before I'd only heard of the crimes of this regime, but now I've seen them first-hand and we have to fight that."
📸 Stanislav Shablovsky, for zerkalo.io
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🇧🇾 I should have posted about it earlier: Two weeks ago, the popular Belarusian blogger and opposition activist Sergei Tikhanovsky has arrived safely in Vilnius, Lithuania, along with 13 other released political prisoners.
His release came just hours after Belarusian state media reported that the dictator Alexander Lukashenko held a meeting in Minsk with Donald Trump’s former Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg.
In this photo: Sergei reunites with his wife, Sviatlana Tikhanovskaya — the leader of the Belarusian opposition in exile. Behind them is the historic flag and coat of arms of Free Belarus.
#belarus #freebelarus #lithuania
If you’ve got no clue who these two are, check the recap in the comments. 🔽
#BlogUpdate:
Check out these logos that I created for the different sections on my Substack with the help of ChatGPT!
They're so cuteee 😊
_
My shekels!
Globes | #econ #israel #israeliranwar
While it's clear to me that the Iranians didn’t win this war by any stretch, many Netanyahu supporters, like Dr. Eli David, are trying to oversell this military success as a "total victory" or "absolute victory", echoing a slogan repeatedly pushed by the Prime Minister.
My Facebook friend Gilad Dar, a software engineer, recently responded to Dr. David’s post with sharp criticism of his own.
And honestly, it’s hard not to agree with his bottom line: there’s a blatant double standard in how the Israeli gov't defines "total victory" when it comes to Iran and Lebanon, versus how it defines victory in Gaza.
#iran #gaza #bibi #gazawar #israeliranwar #lebanon #hezbollah #hamas #netanyahu #palestine #israel