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opencommunion · 2 days

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The geopolitics of labor: Israel's quest to replace Palestinian workers with Indians

"Canadian immigration attorney Aidan Simardone, speaking to The Cradle, compares the situation to historical colonial practices in North America where marginalized European religious groups, like the Puritans, were brought in to service colonial interests.

Israel, he points out, is adopting a similar strategy by recruiting economically disadvantaged Hindu Indians from regions like Uttar Pradesh, aiming to manage demographic and political challenges seamlessly. 'The move is also an attempt by Israel to pull the rug out from under one of the thorns on the side of colonialism. Colonialism requires squeezing blood out of a stone, yet this squeezing depends on the sweat and tears of those who are at the bottom of the barrel.'

Simardone notes the inherent risks for the colonizer in relying entirely on an indigenous labor force, as workers will rebel when colonialism reveals its true nature.

'To steer clear of this predicament, colonizers bring in labor from other parts. These laborers are often pushed to the sidelines as well, but unlike the Indigenous population, they go with the flow rather than swimming against the tide when it comes to the colonial project.'

... A Haaretz report claims that Indian candidates seeking work in Israel were, in many cases, made aware that the jobs were not available to Muslim Indians, a move that undermined the rights of the Muslim minority in India.

Simardone explains that Islam is seen as a mutual threat by the right-wing ethnocentric regime currently leading Israel and Hindutva-dominated India: 'For both countries, the very existence of Muslims undermines their fascist ethnonationalism, which seeks to build a country solely for Jews in Israel and Hindus in India. That is primarily the reason that job recruiters in India who are posting positions in Israel have specifically required Hindus and excluded Muslims, who are more likely to sympathize with the plight of Palestinians.' ... However, the partnership faces criticism domestically, especially concerning the program to shift thousands of workers into an insecure environment. The Construction Workers Federation of India (CWFI) has voiced strong opposition to sending Indian laborers to Israel, arguing that such actions tacitly support Israel’s controversial policies in Palestine.

The association reflects the views of a much broader Indian worker demographic who naturally reject collaboration with an oppressive occupation state that so clearly exploits the Palestinian working class. Instead, CWFI has urged New Delhi to leverage its diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv to advocate for the observance of UN resolutions and to reconsider Israel’s labor-import demands."

#palestine #zionism #hindutva #colonialism #imperialism

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hero-israel · 5 months

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The "Left" has been braying about fascism for years and yet, and YET, I know none of them have even skimmed a single sentence of Ur-Fascism by Umberto Eco. If you've read it, you'll immediately start saying "Oh that's Hamas!" at basically every point he made.

Hamas has used some of the most conservative and harsh readings of Islamic theology to create a cult of tradition, they fundamentally reject modernity as an evil plague of the West, they call on Palestinians to "resist" and "struggle" and plan grandiose attacks like 10/7 with no real concrete long term tenable goals that can be gleaned- action for action's sake.

Disagreement is treason, that much is obvious. Children in preschool are taught to fear and hate Jews (fear of difference), and at the same time teach the "middle" classes that Jews are responsible for their economic hardship as if they aren't embezzling tens of millions of dollars from a global charity scam, that Jews are ever seeking to take more land and resources.

Hamas is obsessed with a Plot, that plot being every antisemitic conspiracy theory under the sun. They and their supporters believe all of them, or prime their own brains to stumble down those pipelines at a later date. My personal favorites include the Ben Gurion Canal Project, but they're all sub-plots of the Main Plot; Jews are seeking to supplant us.

Hamas frames themselves and Palestinian society as a whole as both too strong to consider humble negotiated peace, and to justify endless warfare, but also too weak to be responsible for their crimes, too pathetic for Israel to ever be justified in taking military action. It's a constant cycle of hyping themselves up as a group of badass radical warriors and then squealing "no fair" when Israel uses modern weaponry to swat them away.

I'm sure there's also contempt for the weak in Gazan society, but it doesn't immediately jump out at me from Hamas' propaganda machine (this is usually shunted onto Jews anyway, who are seen as effeminate and metropolitan, feeding into that simultaneous strength and weakness thing- Israel is weak and unworthy of life, but too powerful they're the bullies actually).

Hamas literally educates everyone to become a hero, they literally groom young boys into becoming radicalized child soldiers who do not have the frontal cortex development to resist such blatant brainwashing. It's literal child abuse. Palestinian women are pretty obviously seen as chattel who must breed the future army that will finally overwhelm Al-Yahood. There is no aspect of Gazan society that can exist for itself, it must all be part of the Struggle against Israel. And everyone, down to the tiniest baby, must play their part.

The Machismo is so blatant it should be comical. But you don't gang rape Jewish women and humiliate and torture kids if you're secure in your masculinity. I mean, there is something emasculating about being constantly beaten and seeming to have no hope for your political goals... while also constantly telling yourself that you're a proud virile warrior and you and the People have the strength of will to accomplish anything... but then these people you see as subhuman and like kind of queer if you think about it... well they utterly crush you every time. And that is all to say nothing about how Hamas relates to feminism and gay rights. And also how Eco describes the Macho Fascist as using weapons as an ersatz phallic symbol and we see so many teenage boys in Gaza being handed guns and it's like oh... this one section of the essay could take years to unpack when it comes to Hamas.

And Hamas definitely treats the people of Gaza (if not all of Palestine) as having one will and one voice, individuality is not considered. We've seen them and their spineless NGO simps refuse to acknowledge that many many Gazans criticize them, protest against them, hold them equally responsible for their current suffering as Israel. There is no One Singular Leader who claims to represent Gazans/Palestinians but that could change at any moment honestly.

And I don't see any evidence of Newspeak, but I don't know Arabic so I don't know. I do see the Western Leftist allies of Hamas engage in Newspeak like behaviors though. But that brings me to my ultimate point of this long ass ask. The Western Hamas girlies are literally, not only legitimizing a fascist organization even though they purport to hate fascism more than anything. They're starting to reproduce fascist talking points, fascist ways of thinking, in their own activism and their own lives! They're starting to think, talk, and act like fascists when it comes to Israel and Palestine, and to Jews more broadly. They're entirely unaware of this because to recognize Hamas as fascists would be to add a LOT of gray into their black and white worldview. When they appropriate the Palestinian national struggle for their own narcissistic delusions of popular revolution in the West, they're taking actual fascist propaganda produced by a fascist organization and applying it to their own lives.

tl;dr, by every metric laid out by Eco, Hamas are fascists, the people who support them and make apologetics for them are (maybe unknowingly) becoming more like fascists themselves, the next few years and decades are going to thoroughly suck but Am Yisrael Chai.

#Hamas #umberto eco #Palestine #Gaza #fascism #leftist antisemitism #ur-fascism

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thatlittleegyptologist · 1 year

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Marxism is explicitly meant to be universal. His thing was that there's a general pattern where an economic order changes due to the overthrow of a class by another. Ancient Egypt was described in this system with antiquated and orientalist term "Asiatic mode of production" that's now by modern marxian (sic) historians like John Haldon generally grouped together with systems like feudalism, manorialism, fengjian, etc as a "tributary mode of production". Pharoah analogous to kings; land was generally owned by nobles or temples (cf manorialism) or the state, the many farmers and artisans lived and worked the land but did not in theory own the result of their work. The contract was deeply important to social relations and even indentured slaves would enter into, say, marriage contracts (at least at the time of the elephantine papyri). Basically modern marxists now would hold that Egypt reached that economic mode in its prehistory when the nomes were politically united, and despite Persia, Rome, and several Islamic dynasties the mode of production stayed pretty much the same until early modern history and spread of capitalism, sort of like how China reached that state with the Zhou and didn't really end until sometime around the xinhai revolution. It's ok to not be Marxist/marxian but Marxism is explicitly trying to build a universal reading of economic history, and because of that goal the project is going to try to describe everyone.

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eretzyisrael · 6 months

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The American Front

An American friend asked me yesterday where I thought our greatest dangers lie. Getting bogged down in Gaza? The northern front, facing Hezbollah and the Iranian militias in Syria? The soon-to-be nuclear Iran? Another intifada in Judea and Samaria? Violent riots by Arab citizens of Israel?

None of those, I said. The greatest danger facing Israel today is from the Americans.

My friend was surprised. How is that possible? President Biden expressed his full support for Israel, and is supplying us with weapons and ammunition, and has sent significant naval forces to our region. He threatened Iran against intervening. Congress just overwhelmingly passed a resolution of support for Israel. What more do I want?

So I explained that the problem with America is the same problem that we had here in Israel until October 7. It is the conseptzia, the stubborn resistance to the reality that is behind the conflict that has been going on for at least a century, and of which the butchery on Simchat Torah was just the most recent flareup.

What is the conseptzia? It is a collection of wrong ideas, a constellation of misunderstandings about who the Palestinians are, what motivates them, and what they want. It involves the mistaken projection of a set of values common in the West on a people that have different values, a stubborn refusal to listen to them, and a consistent underestimation of their intelligence, their tenacity, and the exceptionally strong emotion of hatred that infuses their culture.

Right now someone is asking how I can generalize. There are several million Palestinians, and multiple political and religious factions. How can I say they are all the same? Hold that thought – I will come back to it.

Here are a few false propositions that are part of the conseptzia:

1. Like most present-day Americans and Western Europeans, Palestinians are primarily motivated by economic considerations and only secondarily by religion and ideology. 2. The violent terrorism of the Palestinians comes from their frustration that they do not have an independent state. 3. Palestinians are essentially corrupt and will give up their ideological goals if paid enough. 4. The Palestinian Authority (dominated by the Fatah movement) is more moderate than Hamas, and would accept a Jewish state somewhere between the river and the sea if enough of their demands were met.

The reasons none of these are true come from the nature of Palestinian culture.

Palestinian culture is very different from that of liberal Americans or Europeans. That is not surprising, since it developed in an entirely different place from different antecedents. The starting point is traditional nomadic Arab culture, with its emphasis on maintaining personal and family honor and avoiding shame. The Arabs of Eretz Yisrael, who came from various parts of the region, did not consider themselves Palestinians in the beginning of the 20th century (with the exception of a small movement made up of educated Christian Arabs). Their identity was as part of their clans, and as part of the Muslim Ummah. As far as they were concerned, Eretz Yisrael was southern Syria.

Once the 400-year yoke of the Ottomans was removed and Jewish immigration increased, Muslim resistance to the possibility of a Jewish state grew, and was especially encouraged by Amin al-Husseini, the British-appointed, Nazi-supporting, Mufti of Jerusalem. The British had their own reasons for preferring Arab sovereignty when they left in in 1948, and they supported resistance by local Arabs as well as an invasion by the Arab states. But as everyone knows, the Jews succeeded in defeating the Arabs, Arab society in Eretz Yisraelcollapsed, and hundreds of thousands of Arabs fled the area that became the State of Israel.

This was the nakba, a terrible blow to the honor of all the Arabs, who were defeated – and to Islam which was outraged by the reversion of an area from Muslim to infidel rule. And they lost to Jews, the Jews that Mohammed routed in the 7th century and who were permitted to live in Muslim lands only as dhimmis, institutionally inferior to Muslims. It is impossible to overemphasize the importance of this event in forming a specifically Palestinian culture, a culture that grew out of this massive loss of honor. To be Palestinian is to suffer from the nakba, and to dream of reversing and avenging it.

During the 1960s, the Soviets encouraged Palestinian nationalism, adding to it some spices of Marxism-Leninism, and presenting the Palestinians to the world as an oppressed third-world people fighting a war of national liberation against European colonialism. Later we had the “Zionism is racism” resolution in the execrable UN, followed by the 2001 anti-racism summit in Durban, South Africa, which emphasized this theme (despite its complete inapplicability to the conflict), leading to today’s accusations of “apartheid.” Despite all this, which is mostly intended to make Western liberals comfortable with idea of wiping Israel off the map, the Palestinian consciousness still centers on the shame of the nakba.

The honor lost in 1948, and which has continued throughout “the occupation” (to Palestinians this means the period of Jewish sovereignty that began in 1948), can only be recovered by reversing the nakba, bringing back all those who fled in 1948 and their descendants, and establishing Palestinian sovereignty over the land. It is also a religious imperative to restore rule by Muslims. Finally, the shame of what has occurred is so great, that the reversal must be accomplished with great violence. Only if the land runs with blood can the accumulated insults of the last 75 years finally be avenged.

This is Palestinian culture. This is what separates Palestinians from other Arabs and Muslims, many of whom can accept the existence of a Jewish state. With various modifications and different emphasis, this is what every Palestinian child learns in school, whether in a Hamas or UNRWA school in Gaza, or a PA school in Judea/Samaria. It is even to a great degree taught to Arab citizens of Israel in the Israeli Arab educational system. It is what Palestinians hear from their leaders, in their mosques, on the TV and radio, and in their newspapers and social media. It’s what Palestinians say in Arabic, and often in English too.

Certainly there are Palestinians for whom economic goals are important; there are secular ones and Christians; and there are those who hate violence and believe in democracy. There is opposition to Hamas in Gaza and to the PA in Judea/Samaria. But the basic ideas are unchallenged – they are pervasive in the culture itself. They are the conventional wisdom, the motherhood and apple pie of Palestinians, and some form of them is accepted by the great majority. Polls consistently show that most Palestinians favor armed resistance against Israel, and elections are almost always won by the most radical candidate. If that isn’t enough, Palestinian values are often enforced by men with guns.

So that is why the ultra-violent massacre in the south was cheered by Palestinians everywhere. And that is why the propositions of the conseptzia are false. Honor/shame and religion are at the top of the list of motivators for the Palestinians. Palestinians have consistently chosen violence over statehood, and weapons over economic development. They are not frustrated because they don’t have an independent state – they are infuriated because we have one on what they believe is their property. If we give them money for development, they will take it (and skim off plenty from the top for the benefit of their leadership). But the PA will always pay terrorists and their families, and Hamas will not stop building tunnels and rockets.

The Palestinians can’t be bought off and they can’t be persuaded that it is in their interest to live at peace alongside a Jewish state. The various factions have different strategies and tactics, but their ultimate objective is the same: Israel must disappear.

The Americans are dangerous, because they don’t or won’t accept this. The Americans have been slaves to the conseptzia since at least 1967. Biden, Blinken, and the rest continue to talk about a “two-state solution”, by which they mean a Palestinian state under the PA in Judea/Samaria and Gaza (sometimes even with a road between them cutting Israel in two!) What happened on October 7 shows that this is unacceptable. If Israel loses control of Judea and Samaria, the horrific events in the lightly populated Gaza Envelope could be repeated, this time in Tel Aviv. Even if the PA were more moderate than Hamas (it isn’t), who is to say a moderate leadership wouldn’t be replaced by an extreme one? Indeed, Gaza was originally ruled by the PA, but Hamas won the PA elections; and when in 2007 it wasn’t allowed to take power, it overthrew the PA in Gaza, tossed local officials off buildings, and took over.

Ordinary Israelis understand this, and our government seems to as well. This is why it announced that it did not want to decide at this time what would happen in Gaza after Hamas is defeated. It is obvious to us that only some form of Israeli control in both Gaza and Judea/Samaria can protect us, and it is equally obvious that the Americans oppose that. That’s why they are demanding that we come up with a plan for “the day after.” Israel would prefer not to have this argument today.

There are two kinds of people that favor a two-state solution: those that don’t understand Palestinians, and those that do and want to hurt Israel. I believe that Biden belongs to the first group, but there are far too many in his administration and the State Department in the second.

#Israel and Palestinian Arabs #Jew Hatred #Terrorism #US-Israel Relations #War

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dailyanarchistposts · 15 days

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The Pahlavi Regime

The coup of February 1921 that brought General Reza Khan to power set into motion the creation of the modern centralized Iranian nation-state. The Pahlavi state should be seen alongside the other right-wing nationalist regimes that arose around this time in response to both the dissolutions brought about by WWI and the threat of the October Revolution. Reza Shah may be fruitfully compared to his contemporary in Turkey, Atatürk, as well as the models of authoritarian nationalist development seen in Germany, Italy, and Japan. As with these latter cases, the Pahlavi regime was “the product of a counter-attack by a weak capitalist class against a revolutionary movement, in a country that has slipped behind in the process of capitalist development. This class could only redress this position by repression and state-directed economic growth.”[10]

The political logic of this period can be summarized as state-building. Once the new government negotiated the withdrawal of Soviet and British troops, it moved to crush all remaining forms of opposition and centers of power. The powerful tribal armies were brought to heel, while autonomous and local powers, as well as rival officers in pursuit of power, were all crushed. A modern army capable of effectively asserting state power was assembled, followed soon after by nationwide conscription, government ID cards, the abolition of aristocratic titles, and the imposition of formal sur-names. Since the central pillars of the “new order” were a modern army and bureaucracy, the regime sought to extend the power of the state to all realms of society. Local languages were banned, and Persian was made the official language of the country. A modern educational system operating beyond the control of the clergy was established, and something similar was done with the courts, ushering in a modern legal system independent of the religious orders. Perhaps the most symbolic of these changes was the ban on the chador, which, alongside the rest of such reforms, provoked the ongoing ire of the clergy.[11]

Many reformists, and even some to their left, initially supported Reza Khan. Like the Lasalleans in support of Bismark, they thought that by supporting Reza Khan they could push through many of the reforms that ran into dead ends when employing exclusively democratic channels. In 1925, the Qajar Dynasty was abolished, but unlike Attaturk, who founded a republic, the following year he crowned himself Reza Shah Pahlavi and founded a new dynasty.[12] Reza Shah continued solidifying his rule with an iron fist. The regime promoted a chauvinistic nationalist ideology that appealed to the imperial glories of pre-Islamic Persia. The state in this period can be best summarized as a monarchical-military dictatorship.

While the environment was repressive, the industrialisation projects of this era increased the size and importance of the working class, within which communists organized successful union drives. This culminated in 1929, when a massive strike broke out at the Abadan oil refinery complex, which was under the ownership and control of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The strike shook the ruling classes in both Iran and Britain, and served not only as a key event in the history of the working class movement in Iran, but also as a test for the state’s ability to maintain social order. The government responded with a great show of force, ratcheting up repression against communists. In 1931, a new law was enacted that criminalized the teaching and promotion of “communist” ideologies, banned trade unions, made striking illegal, and initiated a new wave of repression of socialist activists and intellectuals were imprisoned.[13]

Although the Pahlavi state enjoyed a degree of independence from the dominant classes, this also tended indirectly to facilitate the latter’s rule. Under both Pahlavi Shahs, it was through the state that capitalist development and industrialization took place. It was through the state that the modern capitalist class was consolidated and expanded, a fact that would remain no less true under the current day Islamic Republic. In many respects, it could be argued that both the Pahlavi regime and the Islamic Republic share features with the imperial state of Napoleon III after the coup of 1852: the latter built a state that was relatively autonomous from the ruling classes, yet which was in the end to the benefit of those classes as a whole, having “destroyed the political domination of the bourgeoisie only to preserve its social domination.”[14]

The reign of Reza Shah came to an end with World War Two. In the intervening years, the Iranian regime grew closer to the axis powers, particularly Germany, with whom it had affinities both political and ideological. The number of German advisors, engineers, and workers had increased greatly. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the Allies wanted to use Iran to send weapons from the Persian Gulf to the Russian front. When Reza Shah refused, the Allies promptly invaded and occupied the country. Reza Shah abdicated in favor of his young son, Muhammad Reza, and lived the rest of his life in exile.

The Allied invasion of 1941, which caused the fall of Reza Shah’s dictatorship, opened up a period of popular political mobilization and activity. Political prisoners were released, trade unions reconstituted themselves, and political parties began to come into shape. While the invasion caused the fall of Reza Shah, the Allies still maintained the state, particularly the monarchy and the military. The Allies would occupy Iran until after the end of the war, with once again the Soviets occupying the north and the British occupying the south. This is also the beginning of the American involvement in Iran, with a military mission sent to Iran to rebuild the army.

When the communist prisoners were released a core of them founded the Tudeh [masses] Party, which would be the official pro-Moscow communist party in Iran. The party had a democratic-populist platform and attracted many intellectuals and middle-class elements. It was also a major presence among the industrial working class, organizing what would be by the end of the decade the largest trade union confederation in the Middle East.

After the war, Iran would be the stage for the confrontation of many social struggles, as well as the first conflict of the cold war. In 1946, the Soviets continued to occupy the north after the agreed upon allied withdrawal. Two autonomous republics were founded in Mahabad and Azerbaijan under the protection of the Red Army. At the same time, a number of communists were included in the post-war coalition government. The Soviets withdrew their forces, and the imperial army moved in with great repression. The communists were also pushed from government, as would be the case with the fall of the coalition governments of France and Italy in 1947. This was the first victory of the new US-Iran military alliance that had begun during the war.

Following the Second World War, the movement for Iranian national independence experienced an upsurge, focused on the demand to nationalize Iranian oil. At the center of this surge was the National Front, led by Dr. Muhammad Mossadegh, who soon gained a mass following and was made Prime Minister in 1951. The National Front was not a party with a single ideology, but an alliance of various parties united around national independence through the oil question. When parliament voted to nationalize the oil industry, the British reacted immediately by imposing an economic blockade on Iran. The result was a great strain on the economy and a major increase in social tensions. The Tudeh Party was increasingly showing their strength. The United States feared that the uncertain situation would create an opportunity for Tudeh to seize power. This was the beginning of the successful coup by pro-Shah rightist military generals in 1953.[15]

The 1953 coup closed the door on the social movements that had opened up with WW2. The period that followed was one of severe repression. The coup would solidify the position of the Shah and the military against all rivals and competing sources of power. It also established the United States as the dominant imperialist power, supplanting the British. The main weight of the repression came against the communists in the Tudeh Party. The party’s network was rooted out and the trade union confederation destroyed. Many militants were imprisoned, executed, or went into exile. It was in order to facilitate this new order that the US helped the regime set up a new secret police force, the Organization for Information and Security of the Country, known commonly by its Persian acronym, SAVAK. Its name would come to be synonymous with repression and torture under the Shah’s dictatorship.

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female-malice · 5 months

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So there's clearly a psyop that is designed to destroy the decolonization movement from the inside.

In 2022, decolonization was about resistance to economic exploitation by global north industries. It was a movement that used lawsuits, land defenders, and strategic disruption of industrial resource extraction.

Keyword: strategic.

Strategic decolonization informed people, settler and indigenous alike, of how economic reform and ecological stewardship would improve their lives. That was the main message. That kind of message inspired many people, regardless of ethnicity, to get involved in practical ways.

Very cool, right? If we let that movement continue growing in that direction, we'll have the resources to file exponentially more lawsuits. We'll exponentially increase our global network of land defenders and stewards. And we can exponentially increase strategic disruption to destabilize ecocidal extraction and convince shareholders to divest.

Woah! That would really change the way the world works, wouldn't it? And the threads of that change are already here. There is an impressive pile of lawsuits. The land defenders are getting more and more high tech resources like surveillance drones. And there are some extremely clever disrupters. This type of strategic, organized decolonization movement is gumming up the works for industrial capitalism.

The machine is actually hurting.

You can't stop a movement by saying "no, bad! Stop doing what you are doing!" That doesn't work.

If you want to stop a movement, you need to compromise it. You need to deprive the decolonization movement of all potential growth in support and resources.

So, on October 7 2023, as images of dead naked women flood the internet, plant your psyop. Have your agents make posts saying "THIS IS WHAT DECOLONIZATION LOOKS LIKE!" Then have social media agents react to that statement in both opposition and support of decolonization. And over the following month, make sure as many people as possible associate decolonization with terrorism. Make sure useful idiots on Tiktok support Islamic terror groups in the name of decolonization. And make sure everyone in the world sees them doing that.

The next time there's news of a lawsuit against a global corporation, someone will mention decolonization. And the machine will respond "these lawyers are representing terrorists." And the general public will agree.

The next time a forest guardian gets killed by an illegal miner in the Amazon, someone will mention decolonization. And the machine will respond "these guardians are terrorists." And the general public will agree.

The next time an activist disrupts a pipeline project, someone will mention decolonization. And the machine will respond "these disrupters are terrorists." And the general public will agree.

So, can we afford to stop using the word decolonization? No, we can't. We need to be able to explain what connects lawyers, forest guardians, and strategic disruption. We need to be able to explain why indigenous people are the most qualified to protect the Amazon. We need to be able to explain why indigenous people should have authority in land management.

There's only one concept that explains all of that. Decolonization.

Islamic extremism is not decolonization. That should be obvious. Countless indigenous groups have been displaced and disenfranchised by Islamic regimes.

Not all resistance to colonizing powers is decolonization. You can also resist your rival's colonizing ideology with colonizing ideology of your own. In fact, that is what most global conflicts look like all throughout history. Colonizing powers fighting each other while indigenous groups are caught in the crossfire. The resources of indigenous people get appropriated by colonizing powers. And they use these resources in their global struggle against other colonizing powers.

Supporting the weaker of two rival colonizing powers is not decolonization.

But, if your intention is to compromise the entire decolonization movement, then you should loudly spout bullshit. Absolutely. Tell the world that decolonization means allying with Iran. Great stuff.

#cc

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horizon-verizon · 5 months

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Hamas is a far right terrorist organization that kills Israelis AND Palestinians you fucking bloodthirsty ghoul

Pfft.

I think that the "fucking bloodthirsty ghoul[s]" are those who either rape/SA Palestinian child prisoners, endorse genocide, try to use a smaller group of Islamists (not "Islamic", Islamist, look the words up) and their actions to justify bombing an entire group of civilians and said children when since 1948 the Israelis, Americans, and British were all the ones responsible for the mass murder and economic exploitation of Palestinian people. Hamas kills for the goal of Palestinian liberation, which could only be acheived through violence of some sort bc of how big a military-facist entity Israel is. Israel kills to dominate, exterminate, humiliate, and colonize.

Especially when Hamas' kill count and ABILITY to kill as many people at once or in succession simply has never and can never compare to the Israelis' kill count. Which, btw, will/does include Black people and PoCs in America through the GILEE project.

Also, the "left" groups of Israel are not the same kind of liberals/moderates/leftists of the U.S., they are all still Zionist and fascist to some degree.

Oh, and those videos of Israelis mocking Palestinian deaths like blackface performances in the U.S., or those of Israelis watching the Gaza bombings? Yeah, the Israelis are the victims here.

Sorry-not-sorry for not just being on the genocidal, racist maniacs' side. Block me as compensation and self-care.

#Palestinian genocide 2023 #not asoiaf #ask

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jasperjv · 13 days

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Everything the United States does is an investment.

The cultural genocide of Native Americans is within living memory. They have asked for #landback and have been told it would be too difficult, and it has been taken as a joke.

Palestinians converted to Islam 1,000+ years ago. Jewish imperialists and anti-Semites alike were given billions to violently impose an anachronistic Israeli regime, no complaints, no questions asked. The project has been called an "investment" in the United States' interests the region.

In the ancient world, the Islamic nations were the crown jewel. You don't have to look very hard to find ornate extravagances of the ancient Islamic world, wherever they have been permitted to be preserved. In ancient religions, the most effective way to convert peoples to a group's own faith is to be prosperous and attribute this to their faith. And following suit, many nations of Africa converted. [I learned these things in my history classes in uni, so I don't have sources. I may direct you to these professors upon request.]

But everywhere in the world there is any economic prosperity, the United States and the general anglosphere strongly feels an entitlement to having their fingers in that pie. The colonial partitioning of Africa, the South African colony, the colonies in what is today called the US, colonial Australia....

Meanwhile citizens in the US are fixated on oil prices and vote based only on their wallets, perpetuating the state of affairs. The class warfare goes deep in itself but is entirely inextricable.

It's clear to me that Israel as a construct is opportunistic, disingenuous, hypocritical, cynical. And Native Americans will never bribe the US enough to get their/our land back on the US's terms. (Whether I am one of them is subjective.)

#landback #israel #palestine #apartheid #colonialsm #imperialism #capitalism #reminder that the US is millions in debt with the Lakota

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workersolidarity · 11 months

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🇮🇷 I support Iran. I want to make that clear. 🇮🇷

Iran's anti-Imperialist creds are unquestionable. The entire basis for the existence of the revolutionary Iranian Islamic Republic is anti-Imperialism. No country supports Palestine and the Palestinian people more than the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The moment the Iranian government no longer supports the fight against Western Imperialism, the justification for its existence vanishes with it, along with the support of the Iranian people it enjoys today.

National Sovereignty is the basis of Socialism. And though Iran is by no means a Socialist country, neither is it a Neoliberal Western Proxy, and Iranians enjoy one of the largest economic safety nets in the Middle East, as well as an economy who's natural resources are dominated by SOEs. Including their National Oil Company...

Iran's oil, of course, was initially Nationalized under Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddegh in March 1951... and of course two years later he was couped by the United States in a typically American Colonialist move, giving full political power to the Shah who used it to stifle dissent, especially and not coincidentally, Socialist and Communist dissent, responsible for a multitude of slaughters against the Iranian people, who were demanding a more active and independent government.

At least, that was until the Islamic Revolution, beginning in 1978 and culminating in the overthrow of the Shah, imposed on the Iranian people by the United States, in February 1979.

You cannot have Socialism without National Sovereignty. And one way the Iranian government can be thought of, is as a radical movement for National Sovereignty; an anti-Imperialist project to expel the colonizers and Western Capitalists who would see the wealth sucked out of their country by Wall Street.

Please, please please don't fall for more US sponsored color revolutions!

Support the revolutionary Islamic Republic of Iran and its fight against Western Imperialism and US Hegemony! And join our fight to build a Multipolar world and Socialism!

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islamiceconomicsproject · 5 months

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Experts Urge Turning to Islamic Economics for Meeting SDGs

Naufil Shahrukh Islamabad, December 9: While Islamic finance has garnered attention in recent years, the true potential lies in developing a comprehensive Islamic economic framework that can uplift Pakistan’s socio-economic landscape by nurturing Islamic social finance and fostering holistic growth. Islamic teachings, rooted in principles aligned with sustainable development goals (SDGs) such as…

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#Akhuwat #Amjad Saqib #Anwar Shah #Institute of Policy Studies #Islamic Economics #Islamic Economics Project #Islamic Social Finance #Naufil Shahrukh #Qard ul Hasan #Quaid e Azam University #Salman Ahmed Shaikh #Tariq Majeed #Waqf #Zakat

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theculturedmarxist · 3 months

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The Biden administration is trying everything to better the situation for the Israeli government except by withdrawing its financial and munition support which are the only two measures that could bring Israel to its senses.

There are now several small wars in the Middle East which may soon accumulate into a big one. Israel is fighting Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in Gaza. It is fighting a silent resistance in the West Bank. On its norther borders it is involved in daily clashes with Hizbullah and various Palestinian resistance groups.

Israel is also bombing Syria and killing Iranian envoys to that country. Iraqi and Syrian resistance groups are attacking U.S. bases in Syria and Iraq. The U.S. is bombing these groups for more or less therapeutic purposes while trying to not hurt them too much. In the Red Sea the Ansarullah government of Yemen is blocking sea traffic related to Israel, the U.S. and UK. The U.S. and UK are bombing Ansarullah positions even as they know that no amount of bombing will change its position.

People in other Arab countries, while seemingly calm, are enraged over Israel's genocidal behavior in Gaza. Their leaders try to keep their distances from the wars but at some point may well be forced to take sides in it.

Meanwhile the U.S., the alleged superpower, is hapless and helplessly trying to achieve results that are way beyond its abilities.

See for one example the last attempt by a U.S. envoy to prevent a further escalation with Lebanon:

US presents new blueprint to push Hezbollah away from Israeli border - Ynetnews, Feb 4 2024

U.S. President Joe Biden's Middle East envoy Amos Hochstein outlined the key elements of a political settlement to deescalate tensions between Israel and Hezbollah during his visit to the Jewish state on Sunday. The plan consists of two phases: In the first, Hezbollah would cease hostilities actions along the border with Israel and will retreat between eight to ten kilometers north from the border. Israeli residents will return to their homes, and a significant deployment of the Lebanese army and UNIFIL peacekeeping forces will maintain stability in southern Lebanon and along the border. In the second phase, Israel and Lebanon will begin negotiations to demarcate the land border, including discussions on 13 points on disputes along their shared boundaries. Simultaneously, the U.S. and the international community will explore offering "economic incentives" to Lebanon. Hochstein received the green light from the Lebanese government for his proposal, though it remains unclear whether Hezbollah agrees with the arrangement. The envoy, who recently met with President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister Benny Gantz urged Israel to give his plan a chance.

Nice plan. But what can you do to implement it?

How in hell will the U.S. be able to make Hezbollah to cease hostilities actions along the border with Israel and to retreat between eight to ten kilometers from the border?

Hizbullah fighters at the border are living in the border towns. They were born there. They want to die there. How the f*** does the U.S. think they can be pushed out? And why would Hizbullah agree to a ceasefire when the murdering of Palestinians in Gaza continues to be the major project of Israel?

The U.S. has no means, none, to press Hizbullah into a ceasefire or to push it to retreat from the border line.

The Lebanese government supports that move? Sure, verbally, as long as you cough up some money. But Hizbullah is part of that government. It is also the superior military power in Lebanon. Neither the Lebanese army nor the U.N. forces have the ability to fight it.

Step one is thereby meaningless. Step two, a promise for negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, makes likewise no sense as Israel is notoriously unwilling to make any concessions.

If baseless fantasies like the above are all the U.S. can come up with it is truly at the end of its abilities.

A chance of a war between Israel and Hizbullah in Lebanon is increasing daily. While there are already daily clashes these are limited by certain red lines and targets. Both sides still avoid to cross those.

But Israel's government needs a victory. Its war aims in Gaza are clearly not achievable. Losses are mounting. Its population, especially the settlers from the north who had to flee their homes, are unruly.

Alastair Crooke thinks (vid) that Israel will start a full out war with Hizbullah simply because the Israeli government needs a victory. He thinks that Netanyahoo still thinks he can achieve one. Others though have their doubts. Hizbullah today is far better equipped and trained than it had been during the 2006 war with Israel. That war ended in a draw or, as some see it, with a defeat of Israel. I know of no expert in that area who thinks that Israel today would fare any better than that.

I'd say let them try. The may well learn from it.

But why the Biden administration even thinks that it can stop such a clash by presenting plans it has no means to press for is beyond me.

#hezbollah #israel #lebanon #israel palestine conflict #biden #gaza

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southeastasianists · 2 months

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In 2023, a significant demographic milestone emerged with broad social and economic impacts: the global population of adults aged 50 surpassed the number of children under 15 for the first time. Brunei Darussalam, a small, oil-rich Islamic country on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia, faces challenges associated with this shift. Ranked as one of the world’s wealthiest nations due to its vast oil and gas reserves, Brunei’s population of 455,858 sees a contrast with a poverty rate of 5%, positioning it 11th out of 78 countries.

Hajah Nor Ashikin binti Haji Johari, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports (MCYS), highlighted the profound economic impact of the aging global population, noting the substantial expenditures on health care, research and support services. Furthermore, Hajah pointed out the rapid growth of the aging population and its broad implications. During Brunei’s chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2021, Johari emphasized Brunei’s leadership in endorsing the ASEAN Comprehensive Framework on Care Economy.

Additionally, in 2017, an action plan spanning five years was adopted to enhance elderly development, welfare and protection, aiming to create a senior-friendly support system and reduce elderly poverty in Brunei. Unfortunately, an aging demographic compounded by an ominous surge in noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes challenges Brunei’s socio-economic development.

Addressing Poverty and Social Protection in Brunei

Bruneians who live in poverty prefer to use the phrasings “living in need” and “difficult life” over “poverty” and “poor.” This exchange of phrasings intends to protect an individual’s self-confidence and self-esteem. Yet this preference challenges officials’ attempts to accurately assess the severity of poverty and implement targeted interventions.

However, Brunei’s social protection schemes encounter challenges. These challenges include limited coverage, differential treatment between public and private sectors, exclusion of unemployed individuals and inadequate support for vulnerable groups such as divorcees, widows/widowers, single parents, orphans, the abused and disabled people.

The Dual Impact of an Ageing Society

Across developing countries, evidence showcases the productivity, creativity, vitality and participation of older adults in workplaces, communities, households and families. According to ageInternational, some of the pros of an aging society include:

Consumer Market: Older adults can create new opportunities in the consumer market with higher disposable incomes and specific needs that can drive economic growth.

Accumulated Knowledge: An aging population can possess a wealth of knowledge and experience, beneficial for education and mentorship.

Stable Workforce: Older individuals provide greater stability in employment as they switch jobs less frequently.

In addition, the aging population significantly impacts the labor market. The dependency ratio, which compares the number of economically inactive individuals to those who are economically active, is set to increase. According to the International Labour Organization, some of the cons of an aging society include:

Labor Shortages: Addressing the need to create jobs for young individuals and encourage lifelong learning for older individuals to acquire new skills.

Pension and Retirement Challenges: Ensuring adequate pensions and financial support for retirees.

Limited Social Support Systems: Establishing social support systems, including affordable housing and accessible transportation, to enhance the quality of life.

Health care Costs: Investing in health care infrastructure to meet the growing needs of an aging population and prioritizing preventive health care measures.

Brunei at a Demographic Crossroads

As Brunei Darussalam navigates through its complex demographic and health landscape, proactive and holistic measures become imperative for securing the future prosperity of its people. Moreover, by addressing the multifaceted challenges head-on, Brunei is poised to set a precedent for demographic resilience and health sustainability.

Above all, the nation’s commitment to comprehensive solutions promises not only to enhance the well-being of its aging population and reduce elderly poverty in Brunei but also to pave the way for long-term national growth. At this pivotal juncture, Brunei’s journey offers valuable insights into the power of foresight and action in shaping a thriving society.

– Pamela Fenton

#Southeast Asia #Brunei Darussalam #Brunei #Poverty #Demographics

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jordanianroyals · 3 months

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King Abdullah II of Jordan Marks 62nd Birthday

Jordan celebrates today, 30 January 2024, the 62nd birthday of King Abdullah II, the eldest son of the late King Hussein and Princess Muna. He was born in Amman on January 30, 1962. He ascended to the throne on February 7, 1999.

King Abdullah received his primary education at the Islamic Educational College in Amman and then attended St. Edmund's School in Surrey, England. For his secondary education, he went to Deerfield Academy and Eaglebrook School in the United States.

He enrolled at Sandhurst Royal Military Academy in the United Kingdom in 1980 and received his commission as a second lieutenant in 1981. King Abdullah joined the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army in 1982, rising through the ranks to lead the Royal Jordanian Special Forces and Special Operations.

In 1987, King Abdullah graduated from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Washington, DC, with a Master's Degree in Foreign Service and completed an advanced research and study program in international affairs.

After returning to active military duty in 1989, he was promoted to Brigadier General in 1994 and appointed commander of the Royal Jordanian Special Forces and Special Operations.

King Abdullah married Queen Rania on June 10, 1993. They have four children: Crown Prince Hussein, Princess Iman, Princess Salma, and Prince Hashem.

On this significant occasion, His Majesty continues to lead the nation with unwavering effort, dedication, and resolve, driving a comprehensive renaissance for Jordan and its youth as the country moves into its second centennial.

The King is committed to a comprehensive modernization of the state's political, economic, and administrative structures to secure a prosperous future for Jordan and its people.

His Majesty actively engages with the nation's youth, men, and women, and dignitaries, personally inspecting living conditions across the kingdom and inaugurating numerous projects across all sectors.

King Abdullah II dedicates his efforts to maintaining Jordan as a beacon of development in a challenging region. This includes significant investments in human capital, combating terrorism and extremism, and tirelessly working to foster peace in the Middle East.

Despite Jordan's limited resources, King Abdullah II has kept the nation's doors open to millions of refugees, continuing the Hashemite tradition of hospitality to those in need.

His Majesty has been honored with several prestigious awards for his contributions to peace, interfaith harmony, and the protection of Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem under Hashemite Custodianship. These honors include the Peace of Westphalia Prize, the Templeton Prize in the United States, Italy's Lamp of Peace of St. Francis, and the Scholar-Statesman Award from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

King Abdullah II is also the author of "Our Last Best Chance: The Pursuit of Peace in a Time of Peril" (2011), outlining Jordan’s vision for resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict.

#King Abdullah II

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eretzyisrael · 6 months

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Here are a few false propositions that are part of the conseptzia:

The reasons none of these are true come from the nature of Palestinian culture.

Once the 400-year yoke of the Ottomans was removed and Jewish immigration increased, Muslim resistance to the possibility of a Jewish state grew, and was especially encouraged by Amin al-Husseini, the British-appointed, Nazi-supporting, Mufti of Jerusalem. The British had their own reasons for preferring Arab sovereignty when they left in in 1948, and they supported resistance by local Arabs as well as an invasion by the Arab states. But as everyone knows, the Jews succeeded in defeating the Arabs, Arab society in Eretz Yisrael collapsed, and hundreds of thousands of Arabs fled the area that became the State of Israel.

#conseptzia #palestinians #palestinian culture

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