Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Locals living in cars because they cannot afford rent Related Melilla migrant deaths:  Who's to blame? Of Pets and Men

We implement extremist policies at home and abroad. We support extremist regimes. We support an extremist super-power. We engage in extremist wars. We sell extremist weapons. We support an extremist genocidal regime. We normalise extremist salaries, extremist wealth, extremist financial sector …  As you know, it's all right to treat ’extremists’ extremely. It's the desire to normalise one’s extremism that makes regimes like the UK’s call their enemies ’extremists’ . When the next violent attack takes place in a Western city they will as usual tell us about ‘terrorism’ re-mobilising their massive media – public and private – to hide their massive state violence in its different forms and shapes – mainly their economic and military violence.

Domenico Losurdo’s new book I have read and I recommend Losurdo’s  Liberalism – A Counter-History . A book praised even by the Financial Times Related Losurdo on social-political struggle Interview on opendemocracy

Another story of Western racism

So far, the major imperialist states supporting Israel in its genocidal war have not acted the way they did against ISIS when the latter killed ‘Westerners’. A friend, an ally, a state that is a European colonial creation, one that shares some similarities with the history of the Western colonial, racist and white supremacist history, and a very important geopolitical regime for imperialism in the region is still allowed to kill ‘Westerners’/Western nationals’ . ‘The price is worth it’. After a period of blackouts, the BBC is publishing what cannot be ignored. The criminals are heartbroken upon hearing of the death of three aid workers.

 غونتر أندريس: البشريّة خلقت الظروف المناسبة لإبادة نفسها

The democratic petty bourgeois, far from desiring to overturn the whole of society for the revolutionary proletarian, strives for a change in social conditions which will make the existing society as endurable and comfortable as possible for him. —Karl Marx  The bourgeois ... is tolerant. His love for people as they are stems from his hatred of what they might be. —Theodor Adorno

A valuable insight on Cuba since the early 1990s. I find it strange though that someone trained in ‘Marxist historiography’ calls the pre-1989 eastern European countries / the USSR ‘socialist countries’ and defends the ‘Western’ sanctions on Russia.

No surprise here. The same UK regime that is complicit in mass crime knights an Egyptian capitalist. The latest example of the intimate relations between the metropole bourgeoisie and the ‘comprador’ one . Colour, religion and nationality are irrelevant. Being part of a dictatorship, repression and oppression is also irrelevant.

The Intercept:  The Defense Department blew the deadline for a mandatory briefing to Congress on coups by U.S.-trained African military officers . Related The school of Latin America’s dictators The War on Democracy documentary

In the sixth economy in the world On minimum wage Neglected and exploited Foreign nurses

The treatment of Palestinian women, in particular the rapes and sexual aggression which they have endured since the beginning of the war on Gaza.

The BBC has began to filter less because the corporation cannot ignore what international organisation report. Albanese had been accused of ‘antisemitism’ in 2014. “Ms Albanese's choice of a title for it: 'Anatomy of a Genocide' was not exactly diplomatic. Many member states, especially those traditionally supportive of Israel, will be uncomfortable.  But UN special rapporteurs, while tasked by the UN to examine and advise on specific situations, are independent of it.  Genocide is a specific legal term, and Ms Albanese's report suggests some of the legal criteria have been fulfilled.  She cites what she says appears to be Israel's intention to destroy Palestinians as a group ‘in whole or in part’, a key clause in the Convention against Genocide. She mentions in particular three elements which point to possible genocide:  Killing members of the group Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of lif...

“Bonapartism has reemerged stronger than before. In Macron it assumes a classic form. The right of the Rassemblement National and the left of La France insoumise (the ‘extremes’, in the parlance of the quality press) balance one another, while the radical centre – the  bourgeois bloc  anatomized by Serge Halimi – is free to pursue its own interests, while also claiming to protect the dignity of the nation, wider humanity and now the ecosphere itself. A remarkable political formula, as [Gaetano] Mosca would have put it.” A bonapartist solution

It is not Europe but some of Europe. “In essence, the EU and major member states have thrown their lot in with one of the most brutal and repressive dictatorships in the Middle East, standing firmly against the democratic aspirations of Egyptians. This policy has garnered mass profits for European corporations and states , at the expense of the Egyptian poor and middle classes.” Related A window into Egyptian general’s past

"Beyond the grandiose tirades and pontificating final statements, each ‘urgent’ meeting ratifies only the league’s inaction. It is too tempting to picture this assembly (excellencies, corpulencies, marshal-presidents, rebels-turned-honourables, men elected in dubious landslides or by the slimmest of margins) at its large round table, conversing with furrowed brows before condemning Israel’s depiction of the war as ‘self-defence’ and demanding, of course, that the country ‘immediately abolish these brutal and inhumane measures’ (11 November 2023). And what else? Threats of a military response? Calls for international sanctions on Israel like those Russia faced after invading Ukraine? A motion supporting South Africa’s case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to stop Israel’s ethnic cleansing or even genocide in Gaza? A radical re-examination of the normalisation process and – why not? – severing of diplomatic ties? Cutting Gulf sovereign wealth fund investment in the US...

“Hungary is the only EU member state that  hasn’t  called on Israel to halt its planned ground offensive in Rafah. Orbán is one of the only leaders in the EU who has banned all Palestine-related demonstrations in his country since the Hamas attacks. In Hungarian liberal media, censorship regarding any criticism of Israel and its treatment of the Palestinian people is akin to the  silencing of debate in Germany . Orbán’s foreign policy is shaped by his openness to the East — driven not by ideological affinities, or still less human rights issues, but by simple power politics. He is trying to balance positive diplomatic ties with such varied states as Azerbaijan, China, Qatar, Russia, and Turkey. The Hamas attack on October 7 put Orbán in a delicate situation in this sense. Naturally, he expressed his solidarity with the Israeli people and support for Netanyahu, but he has been rather silent ever since.” The “liberal opposition had a historic opportunity to confront the pri...

"You can call it ethnic cleansing . I repeat again, the Arabs do not want, normal Arabs do not want to live in Gaza. If you want to call it cleansing, if you want to call it apartheid, you choose your definition. I choose the way to protect the state of Israel." "We must do it. It's part of Israel area," he says. "This is the land that God gave us, and you couldn't go to God and tell him, 'OK you gave me, and I gave to other people.' No. I believe in the end we will go back to Gaza." When God was an estate agent!