Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

“There is no alternative, I concluded. The delusion of democracy was a colonial concoction (a world capitalist ruse) that is now exposed for what it is and over and done with - we've hit a wall with pictures of Trump, Modi, Assad, Sisi, Ayatollah Khamenei, Putin, and the rest of them plastered all over it. This is the case unless, like Hannah Arendt, we make a crucial distinction between freedom from tyranny and liberty to choose a different political system. At this point in history, I have therefore concluded, we are far more invested in freedom from tyranny than harbouring any conviction or trust in liberty to choose a legitimate alternative state. I am now convinced we are far better off understanding what has tormented us and despising it than hoping to achieve what we wish and has historically escaped us.”

“One of the central themes of the article is the distortion of historical memory through modern media. Boroujeni highlights how the accessibility of social media has enabled a flood of misinformation, where selective memories and manipulated narratives drown out critical perspectives.”

“The presidency of Jimmy Carter covering the years 1977 to 1980, seemed  an attempt by one part of the Establishment, that represented in the Democratic  party, to recapture a disillusioned citizenry. But Carter, despite a few gestures  toward black people and the poor, despite talk of ‘human rights’ abroad,  remained within the historic political boundaries of the American system,  protecting corporate wealth and power, maintaining a huge military machine  that drained the national wealth, allying the United States with right-wing  tyrannies abroad. Carter seemed to be the choice of that international group of powerful  influence-wielders—the Trilateral Commission. Two founding members of the  commission, according to the Far Eastern Economic Review—David  Rockefeller and Zbigniew Brzezinski—thought Carter was the right person for  the presidential election of 1976 given that ‘the W atergate-plagued Republican  Party was a sur...

It is happening at an alarming rate

“[S]ectors of the populist or neo-Stalinist Left lament the fall of the Assad dictatorship . They present it — along with the rest of the “Axis of Resistance” led by the reactionary Iranian regime — as a progressive and anti-imperialist alternative. Some argue that the enemies of our enemy should be our allies, because they challenge ‘Western hegemony’. This completely ignores the class character of these powers. Rather than supporting the Palestinian cause or that of other oppressed people, these forces seek to oppose the reordering of the region for the further benefit of Israel and the United States because that would push them to the margins; at the same time they reconcile themselves with the pro-imperialist monarchies of the Gulf.”

A staunch supporter of Israel. Back in 2015, Richard Seymour wrote: “From the Guardian to the Express, from the New Statesman’s craven toeing of the Blairite line to the lies in supposedly neutral dailies like the Metro, from the Sun’s made-up “exclusives” to the queue of Labour MPs and liberal pundits lining up to spew bile for the Daily Mail, from Tory attack ads to the Telegraph screaming for Corbyn’s head, the media and the political class have near-total unanimity in their ferocious anti-socialism. I know we call them “the bourgeois media,” but not even the most crass, petty-minded Stalinist apparatchik could have produced a caricature as venomous and despicable as our lot. You can’t understand the reasons for this in simple commercial terms. It isn’t about securing advertising accounts or selling copy. Nor is it simply about the short-term interests of their proprietors. It is primarily about their integration into the party-political machinery. It is about their dependence on, a...

Joseph Daher, author of "Hezbollah: The Political Economy of Lebanon’s Party of God", said that Iran’s decision to once again launch a direct attack on Israeli soil – one that he said had had little impact on the country’s military capabilities – likely served more than one purpose. “We have to understand this 'retaliation' from Iran in two aspects,” he said. “Firstly, as a way to reaffirm a form of deterrence against Israel and in response to the numerous attacks of Israel against Iran directly or against Iranian-related targets. And secondly, to maintain this connection in the so-called Axis of Resistance by acting in favour of Tehran's network of influence in the region – especially Hezbollah. Because there were rising criticisms among Hezbollah’s popular base, basically asking, ‘What is Iran doing against the rising attacks, against this escalation of violence against Lebanon?’. That said, this ‘retaliation’ will not stop Israeli war on Lebanon.” Daher said t...

‘The first genocide in history to be televised and openly supported by the West’

‘ The decaying American empire ’ argument is disputable. The comparison with the collapse of the Soviet Union misses the different economic structures of the two countries. The US economic power has not been experiencing a long term stagnation, for example.  Actually, the argument should be the way around: in 1980s there was no ‘whip of external necessity’ compelling the US to outcompete the Soviet Union. The latter was not an economic threat to the US. Today China is the ‘external whip’ but to an already more powerful American economy – a dynamic one in terms of capital-intensive industries, productivity and an array of industrially-advanced allies and subordinates.

“The issue with Iranian capitalism is not economic; it is political, ideological, and governmental .”  You cannot separate the economy from the other three or make secondsry: They are all in the same bundle and in interaction. 

“It’s no secret that Biden’s push for a Saudi deal is largely about escalating its proxy war against Iran and “great power competition” with China .”

A very good article Capital’s Emirates

Rules of the game

These same Arab nations  [sic] are now pivotal in stopping Israel from further escalating the war after Iran’s missile and drone attack. *The states decided not the nations. And those states are by no means representative of their respective population even when measuring representation by bourgeois democracy.

A regional war led by the US and a hot of Arab regimes, UK, in defence of Israel Related “Though the U.S. created the conditions that may have encouraged Netanyahu’s gambit , it was reportedly Israel, acting on its own behalf, without coordination with its allies, that precipitated the latest grave escalation.”

A sample: the Metro, which is owned by the same people who own the Daily Mail. Some people injured are called “a rain of terror”. 

“Consider the outcry from UK feminists over the tragic case of Iran’s Mahsa Amini, who was punished for her ‘improper’ hijab, leading to her death.  Like many, I was incensed by the injustice she faced. The global reaction to Amini’s ordeal sparked a significant feminist movement, with solidarity in the UK, as   activists staged  dramatic hair-cutting protests in the heart of London.  Yet, the dire situation facing Palestinian women and children in Gaza has not benefitted from similarly loud and passionate advocacy. It’s as though feminist ire and power selectively rears its head for issues that fit a decidedly western narrative of liberation – leaving others, such as those in Palestine, in the shadows. Draped in the lofty notion of ‘liberation’, it often imposes western values on women around the globe, leaving chaos in its wake.”

Asymmetries

A must-read analysis

Note that the Associated Press is aligned with the dominant narrative of Western corporate media and politicians calling the Israeli war on Palestinians ‘an Israeli-Hamas war’.