NM's blog

'Zionism and its destiny ’

July 4th  marks the 249th anniversary of the declaration of America's independence. This is no reason to celebrate. Let it instead serve as an opportunity to remind ourselves that the most pressing threat to humanity is a bloodthirsty pack of private interests hellbent on resource extraction and willing to use the full extent of its military might to destroy every living thing between it and capital accumulation.

Fuelling the machinery of genocide

Not really news, but good to see it on the BBC “The Yoorrook Justice Commission found violence and disease reduced the local Indigenous population by three quarters in the 20 years after the state was colonised, in the early 1830s.”

“Israel is not after solving its nuclear dilemma with Iran. It is after solving its Iran dilemma, which is that this state is too big, it’s too powerful, it’s too influential, it’s too capable .”

The world clearly constitutes a single system, i.e., a coherent whole, but the knowledge of this system presupposes knowledge of all nature and history, which man will never attain. Hence, he who makes systems must fill in the countless gaps with figments of his own imagination, i.e., engage in irrational fancies, ideologize.  —Frederick Engels, Anti-Dühring, 1969 [1877]

“The reasons for this devastation lie in structural factors shaping the country’s economy and demography , as well as the accumulated harms caused by decades of intermittent war. “The extreme underdevelopment in peripheral regions has logically bred grievances among local populations that, when combined with the central state’s violent suppression of dissent, creates fertile ground for the rise of armed groups. The atrocities committed by the RSF, SAF, and allied militias on both sides merely continue long-established patterns of violence.”

“On one hand, we have the symbolic violence of intellectual gatekeeping, where certain voices—usually elite, often Western—decide which suffering is legitimate and which resistance is ‘too Western’, ‘too liberal’, or ‘not authentic enough’. On the other, we have the remnants of Orientalism living on in reverse: an unwillingness to confront tyranny when it wears traditional clothes or speaks the language of anti-imperialism. “Bourdieu showed us how elites define what counts as legitimate knowledge. Said exposed how empire produces false knowledge in order to rule. But what neither could have fully foreseen is this third form: where knowledge cloaked in anti-imperialist jargon becomes a tool to delegitimize resistance .” Here is an example: Tariq Ali cannot being himself to go beyond 'geopolitics' to sociology . There is not a single mention of the Iranian society, power relations, repression, etc., and how all that is related to 'geopolitics'. 

What response is possible for society when politics has been erased? Today, Iran is trapped between two silences —the one forced from within by the regime, and the one from outside, as the world turns away from what’s happening.”

An interview with Vivek Chibber

The Guardian's liberal view on Palestine Action

According to Al-Jazeera

Makers face human trafficking trial

Our talent for division, for seeing the parts, is of staggering importance — second only to our capacity to transcend it, in order to see the whole.  —Iain McGilchrist, The Master and His Emissary, 2012

NYT, 19 June 2025

“Even if the US does not bomb Iran, it will continue to arm Israel. Either way, there will be serious implications for the Middle East and US politics. “Labour Party meetings and trade union meetings should pass resolutions demanding an end to the assault on Iran and further demanding that Britain should play no role in the attack on Iran, either directly or indirectly and socialists should support demonstrations, lobbies and rallies to that effect.” Even if resolutions were passed they would be defeated by Starmer and the right of the Labour Party.

“When people hear the word 'genocide', they probably think of Gaza, maybe Sudan. But the world’s worst genocide has been occurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where vicious wars have been fought for nearly three decades for power and control over critical minerals .” Note that the writer does not refer to the definition of genocide amd how it applies to the Congo. Related Africa's Leaky Giant

“We are not Arabs, and others measure us by a different standard… Our instruments of war are different from those of the Arabs, and only our instruments can guarantee our victory. Our strength is in defence… and this strength will give us a political victory if England and the world know that we are defending ourselves rather than attacking.” Israel's image as a victim has endured , even as it carries out mass killings and forced displacement. Related Hypocrisy and savagery

If/when you are in London, I recommend you join this tour .

“And just as Israel’s allies in the region have already helped shoot down Iranian missiles, we can be certain that Western governments will come readily to Israel’s defence — both rhetorically and materially — ensuring it can continue its attacks.  “This is the overwhelming lesson Israel has drawn from the past 20 months amid its intensifying onslaught on Gaza: there is no limit to what the world will let it get away with. Now, as it bombs its sixth neighbouring state or occupied territory in less than two years, there should be no doubt that impunity is the lifeblood of Israel’s far-right government, and the fuel driving its spiralling aggression. Until it runs up against firm international resistance, it will not cease in its campaign to militarily re-engineer the entire region.” International resistance is not specified. Personally, I understand that Ben Reif means governments  resistance. Reif like any liberal and a few leftists has faith in 'international l...