#Middle East conflict

[queenwille]

what’s the best antisemitic post or fake propaganda you read?

i’ll start, because it’s a good one.

i was sitting with my muslim bestie between classes in our classeroom (we study community social work), scrolling through threads, while she was scolding me about being too lazy to start working on this presentation we had to do about community services post october 7th. suddenly i read this post “Do you know Muslims aren’t allowed to walk on the sidewalk in Israel? You know when that happened last in history and to who…” i burst out laughing and she’s even angrier that i’m not listening, but i show her and she looks and laughs as well, while i look at her muslim self sitting in an israeli uni classroom like any other student scolding my jewish ass rightfully so. she goes “what the fu…? how did she..? wait, but wait, where in history…”

“i- ohmygo- the holocaust. THE HOLOCAUST.”

-“oh my god, of course i knew that wth”

it amazes me how people across the sea will write anything about our lives for the drama/spice/followers/likes without knowing us and how we live. and then that if we were a little less strong, these things could have seriously ruined our great friendship.

[yaegeram]

Hello people on Tumblr,

The gofundme campaign of the kind @ahmedalnabeeh234 has sadly been taken down and I am writing this in hope of having anyone be kind enough to set another one up with him.

His campaign had been vetted already and he chatted with me so it's legit too. I'm unfortunately not able to set one up, so I hope one of you guys will be able to.

Please help him out, free Palestine 🇵🇸‼️

[sounds-of-arabia]

“Be like the Palestinians in Gaza.”

in light of dark times in the middle east, i think we can all truly learn from the strength of our brothers and sisters’ suffering. their resilience, bravery and endurance is out of this world. their reliance on Allah provides them courage beyond our comprehension. may Allah grant them the greatest of blessings 🤍

[head-post]

After Gaza truce, international community must keep pressure on Israel, Palestinian PM says

The international community will have to keep up the pressure on Israel after a ceasefire in Gaza, the Palestinian prime minister says.

Negotiators in Doha are trying to broker a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip after 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas that has left tens of thousands dead.

The international community will have to keep up pressure on Israel to agree to a Palestinian state after a truce in the Gaza Strip deemed inevitable, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa said on Wednesday.

Mustafa said ahead of a meeting in Oslo on a two-state solution, Israeli and Palestinian, in the Middle East:

“The truce we are talking about (…) is mainly due to international pressure. It shows that the pressure is bearing fruit.”

Israel “must realise what is just and what is unjust, and that the veto on peace and a Palestinian state will no longer be accepted or tolerated,” he added, speaking to the press.

The Palestinian prime minister made the remarks on the sidelines of the third meeting of the “International Alliance for the Two-State Solution,” which is attended by representatives of some 80 states and organisations.

Negotiations on a ceasefire agreement “in the final stages”

At the same time, negotiators in Doha are trying to finalise a ceasefire agreement in Gaza after 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas that has killed tens of thousands of people in the Palestinian territory. Qatar, which is the main mediating country along with the United States and Egypt, said the talks were “at the final stage” and “major issues” had been resolved, but did not specify which ones.

On Wednesday, the Kremlin said it was “cautiously optimistic” about a truce in Gaza, which has been portrayed as inevitable, deeming a cessation of hostilities “extremely necessary” amid a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

“A ceasefire and a truce are extremely necessary for the people who remain in Gaza and who are experiencing these absolutely inhuman difficulties and need a ceasefire, all possible forms of humanitarian aid,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Finally, a spokesman for Palestinian Islamic Jihad told AFP on Wednesday that a delegation from its movement had travelled to Qatar to take part in discussions with other Palestinian groups on prisoners to be released in the event of a truce in Gaza.

“A delegation of leading members of the Islamic Jihad movement arrived in Doha on Tuesday night to take part in the final negotiations on a ceasefire agreement in Gaza,” a spokesman for the armed group, which is allied with Hamas, said.

Read more HERE

[eretzyisrael]

[onbreakreadlastpost]

This is just a reminder to everyone that arab.org still exists and that you should consider doing daily clicks to help people!

[downtowncoach]

[burning-beneath]

Silent Witness to a Vanishing Land

The weight of silence is heavy. A genocide is unfolding in Gaza, and the world is watching—some in horror, others in indifference, but most in silence. How is it possible that, in an age where information travels faster than light, where injustice can be exposed in real time, the response remains muted, the action absent? Palestine was once a whole country. A land with its own people, its own…

[workersolidarity]

🇮🇱⚔️🇮🇷 🚨

ISRAELI MEDIA REPORTS "LIMITED" STRIKE AGAINST IRAN

The Zionist media is reporting the Israeli occupation launched a "limited" strike targeting an Iranian military base in Isfahan, in central Iran using a reported combined missile and drone strike.

Air sirens were recorded in the city of Isfahan, while Iranian air defenses were activated and reportedly shot down several drones.

Meanwhile, the NY Times is quoting three Iranian officials as saying a strike targeted an airbase in Isfahan, and also cited two Israeli officials as claiming responsibility for a strike on Iranian military bases.

According to a report in the Hebrew media, the United States was notified beforehand of "Israel's" intention to strike Iran over the following 24-48 hours.

#source1

#source2

#source3

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[alwaysbewoke]

[soapver4]

World War A: Anti-Gambit

Platform Bubble: A global chess league rating players by victories and defeats weighted according to not only the relative lifetime standings of their opponents, as is the current practice of the International Chess Federation, but also the number of personal and enemy pieces they preserve. The undertaking can set our bloodthirsty, injustice-ridden world thinking about alternatives to violence in defense campaigns, independent of the justifiability of any campaign. Squeeze out both pseudologic and logic oxygens keeping alive political murder machines. That is the true combat we need on a planet already overheated yet increasingly bent on engulfing itself in gunfire.

Logic disciplines and hobbies are what some of us turn to for refuge on a planet that so often refuses to reason, or at best selectively engages in self-serving reasoning, yet we cannot ignore how glorious and dark meanings alike color actions and destinations on the board. But first, this league proposal does beg the question of whether piece capture is a metaphor for killings in chess. Relax, some would say. The pieces merely enter chess jail and are liberated at the start of the next game. That interpretation, unfortunately, is far from universal, as a simple web search would illustrate. Moreover, life as a real prisoner-of-war is far from paradise. Although there are chess variants such as crazyhouse that reincarnate captured pieces into one camp or another mid-game, resurrection and loyalties switched at will are certainly not features of the real-life battlefield dynamics that chess lovers and observers see value in encapsulating and contemplating through the game. To combat problematic allusions, we can alternatively simply advocate for the designation of an off-board zone prominently labeled "Lounge" in all chess games and refashion the games as a kind of clown carnival but, on top of the loss of sobering armed conflict metaphors, the notion of linguistic and image tweaks may not be as arresting to chess movers and shakers as a heightened strategic challenge. The formidable task of keeping on the board as many pieces as possible, in contrast, brims with opportunities for the cerebral stimulation and growth players relish. Coincidentally, a growth conquest is the ideological opposite we can hold up to warmongers busy cutting lives short.

Embedding a social mission compensates for the excesses of chess to at least some extent. Chess is an exercise in deviousness. Many breakthroughs in the matches involve loopholes or rule-bending through the clash of game norms and restrictions. For instance, the prohibition of king capture (as opposed to mere threat on the king in e.g. checkmate) means that a pawn can be moved next to the enemy queen yet not be captured by her, if the move opens up a line of attack from another piece to the enemy king. After the opponent wastes their turn defending the king, the pawn can even capture that frozen queen. Also, since players cannot skip turns, opponents can deliberately narrow down their space for maneuver such that their only available moves are marching one or more pieces to doom. Quitting is a way out of this scenario termed zugzwang but we may not want to raise that white flag if there is still some chance for victory.

Green lines indicate current or future moves or threats. It's White's turn to move. The d4 pawn will freeze the mighty black queen by unveiling the bishop's threat to a piece less capable yet more crucial than her, the king. A sad old story. Claim the throne, woman!

It's also White's turn to move. By staying where he is, its king can prevent the b2 pawn's queen promotion, but all its pawns are stuck and its rook is obliged by the rules to stay in position to block the black bishop's attack on the king. Capturing the pawn is impossible as the black rook is backing it. Since no side is allowed to skip turns, he has no choice but to move away, witness the glorious promotion helplessly and scamper futilely for his life. Mate in three moves.

Certainly, high-stakes situations in life merit the study of wiles, both to employ and to defend against them. On the other hand, compartmentalization of one domain from another is not always guaranteed. Many of us may know of people who develop occupational tendencies that spill over to their lives outside work, like military superiors who raise their children on highly strict regimens. In a similar vein, habits of manipulation and exploitation may seep into aspects of life which do not warrant them. Even if players aver the lack of any such effect on the part of themselves or their peers, it is difficult to speak for all. And "all" is of essence here, since a handful of rogue individuals is more than enough to wreak havoc in our social groups and networks. In the absence of a robust study of a large, diverse population of chess players, caution is therefore necessary. Practicing humane care and compassion on chessboards counteracts any slippage into moral wantonness.

As a bonus, the tempering of chess' association with ruthless self-interest, a link intentionally or unintentionally corroborated by relevant book titles using adjectives like "cunning", "devious" and "underhanded" for a touch of playfulness or for celebration of those traits, can attract more people concerned with moral values to the discipline, spreading cognitive skills and virtues the game instills even in its classical format  — circumspection, planning ahead, delayed gratification, flexibility, creativity — more widely around the globe. When we can be confident in the values upheld by a field of endeavor, we can more readily appreciate the idea of throwing around those descriptors for jest or intellectual acknowledgment, somewhat like how Gen Z tosses around the word "brat" in unconventional contexts self-assuredly as they elevate its meaning to that of self-confidence, individuality and fun-seeking.

Other potential moral pitfalls of chess include the abusive and toxic subcultures alleged on forums like Reddit and in journalistic coverage. None of the pitfalls mentioned in this article is exclusive to or necessarily most heightened in chess. Nonetheless, if we have the chance to make the world a more tolerable place through one arena of life, we should seize upon that chance, just as many an attacked king would not want to miss a loose thread in a mating net.

Be under no illusion that identical numbers of captured pieces would equalize victories and defeats by players of the same rank in the chess league design. Here is a possible implementation, to be tweaked according to practicality, deontological considerations and other circumstances, of the league:

Add to a player's post-match rating under an existing mechanism a supplementary score y, which has a minimum value (e.g. -5) and a maximum value (e.g. 5). The maximum value is awarded to a victor who has neither captured any enemy piece nor lost any of his own pieces, for example in Fool's Mate. The worst case scenario, on the flip side, leaves two non-defeated pieces on the board, in either a stalemate between two unaccompanied kings or a checkmate by an enemy king and the enemy king's sole remaining piece. Assigning a worth of 5 points to each of the 32 pieces on the board, we can envisage y as m[(∑a - b)/c - d], where m is a multiplier which magnitude depends on how large we want the anti-gambit effect to be, a∈[0,5] reflects the state of each piece, b and c are constants identified further below to be used for normalization, and d is some reasonable score of the normalized sum of piece states, (∑a - b)/c, below which we want to penalize players for piece captures. Since an army owes a higher obligation to its own members than to enemy pieces, a=0 is scored for each member it loses during the game whereas a=1 is scored for each enemy piece it captures. Similarly, a=5 is scored for each member it protects till the end whereas a=4 is scored for each enemy piece it spares or king it checkmates. On the other hand, since the fate (e.g. slaughter, torture) of those lost members tends to be even worse in real-life scenarios than the fate of survivors on a lost land, a=2 is scored for each of a loser's surviving pieces.

Thus a loser checkmated by an enemy king and that sole remaining piece gets ∑a = 1 x 2 + 15 x 0 + 2 x 4 + 14 x 1 = 24. The player checkmating that lone king gets ∑a = 2 x 5 + 14 x 0 + 1 x 4 + 15 x 1 = 29. In that stalemate between two kings, each player gets ∑a = 1 x 5 + 15 x 0 + 1 x 4 + 15 x 1 = 24. The maximum ∑a is naturally 16 x 5 + 16 x 4 = 144. Now that we have seen that 24 is the worst possible sum of a and 144 the best possible, we can set b as 24 and c as 144 - 24 = 120. Check: If the multiplier m is 1 and d =0, the maximum value of y is therefore (144-24)/120 = 1, and the minimum is (24-24)/120 = 0. So far, y = m[(∑a - 24)/120 - d]. Suppose a wide-ranging scrutiny of games played under such a scoring scheme suggests that m(∑a - 24)/120 = 0.5m is a score above which most players targeting any value significantly struggle to make progress in matches, potentially resulting in a blanket of non-conclusive and predominantly defensive gameplay that threatens fan support for the league, we can set d = 0.5, such that y is a positive supplementary score when (∑a - 24)/120 is above 0.5 and negative when (∑a - 24)/120 is below it. If we then believe an addition and deduction of five rating points for maximal piece preservation and maximal piece sacrifice respectively is justified, m = 10 can be chosen. In that case, y = 10[(∑a - 24)/120 - 0.5] where 0 ≤ a ≤ 5 for each piece.

Fool's Mate preserving all pieces on both sides. Multiple defenses against this type of speedy checkmate are possible, however.

For a real-life illustration, let us apply the formula for y to a viral checkmate, proclaimed as a Mona Lisa Checkmate by the victor, that has been making the rounds on the Internet for its Herculean combination of beauty and cruelty: KNVB (2814) v The_Machine04 (2782). By move 45, Black (The_Machine04) had lost all its non-pawn and non-king pieces, whereas White (KNVB) was up by a knight and had critical control of the center of the board. But rejecting the facile victory already in sight, White spent over a hundred moves from there on squeezing Black around as White vanquished all remaining enemy pawns and promoted its own six remaining pawns, not into an overabundance of queens, but into pieces that made up the typical starting line of each game. Carefully avoiding a stalemate, White held Black at bay as it guided the promoted pieces into that starting formation. Along the way, the moves also forced the poor Black king to drift all the way to the second rank of the board, where the last piece to snap into the formation conveniently checkmated it. In a video commentary, Black acknowledged that he realized what was transpiring by the point of the first promotion (move 81) but refused to resign.

In the proposed global league, adopting the values of m = 10 and d = 0.5,

Black gets y = 10 x [(1 x 2 + 15 x 0 + 8 x 4 + 8 x 1 - 24)/120 - 0.5] = 10 x [(42 - 24)/120 - 0.5] = -3.5. His adjusted rating after that particular match is 2782 - 3.5 = 2778.5 ≈ 2779.

White gets y = 10 x [(8 x 5 + 8 x 0 + 1 x 4 + 15 x 1 - 24)/120 - 0.5] = 10 x [(59 - 24)/120 - 0.5] = -2.08. His adjusted rating after that particular match is 2814 - 2.08 = 2811.92 ≈ 2812.

Is the system's suppression of more displays of strategical artistry like the Mona Lisa Checkmate and of visual statements of unrelenting doggedness like The_Machine04's as it punishes both sides for unnecessary carnage lamentable? That is at least a case for the piece lounge alternative idea above. The two concepts can be executed in parallel.

Holding on to everyone of every rank and every circumstance is cumbersome and risky in numerous multi-stakeholder quagmires. In the face of an imminent physical attack, one may have no time to conduct sophisticated calculations to ensure airtight collective welfare that leaves out no one. Frequently, the alternative to active sacrifice of some is passive sacrifice of all. Yet that is all the more reason why we need to put our brains to such exercise and commence such intellectual exploration in the low-stakes sandbox environment chess as a discipline offers. The more we strategize balancing acts, the more solutions may occur to us, at higher velocities.

Until the escape velocity is reached, how many warzone newborns are those of us who are chess aficionados helplessly allowing to die, even before they learn to speak, as our little toy queens skate across little boards?

[undbtlone]

US government's reaction to Free Palestine protests:

[head-post]

Hamas hands over bodies of hostages as Tel Aviv frees Palestinian prisoners

Hamas handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages to mediators late Wednesday night. In response, Israel released 625 Palestinian prisoners whose release was supposed to take place last Saturday but was postponed “until the release of the next hostages is guaranteed, and without humiliating ceremonies.”

Hamas hands over four Israeli hostages’ bodies

The bodies of Itzhak Elgarat, Tsachi Idan, Ohad Yahalomi, and Shlomo Mantzur will be returned home. Officially, the names of the dead, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office says, will be confirmed only after an Israeli forensic examination.

The hostages’ families were told in advance of the pending exchange. “We are waiting, but we will have full confidence that it is Tsachi only after all the necessary forensic examinations,” family representatives of Tsachi Idan said.

Israel said that despite Hamas claims of a simultaneous exchange, the Palestinian prisoners would only be handed over after the four Israeli bodies were identified, which could take many hours.

Tsachi Idan was last seen by his wife Gali when he was taken away by Hamas militants. Their family were ambushed in a safe room at Kibbutz Nahal Oz.

Gali told the BBC that their eldest daughter Maayan had just turned 18. She had been shot dead. Ohad Yahalomi was abducted from his kibbutz along with his 12-year-old son Ethan, who was released in the autumn of 2023. According to Ohad’s mother Esther, her daughter-in-law and two granddaughters managed to escape when five gunmen broke into their home, but they captured Ohad and Ethan.

Itzhak Elgarat, 69, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz. He called his younger brother on 7 October 2022 at approximately 11:30 and reported that he had been severely injured while trying to close the door of a safe room. According to Israeli press reports, 86-year-old Iraqi-born Shlomo Mansour was the oldest hostage taken by the Hamas group. He was captured in his home in Kibbutz Kissufim. According to the Israeli military, militants killed him and took his body to the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian group has released more than 25 live captives since the first phase of the truce agreement between Israel and Hamas went into effect on January 19, and each time it has been in large crowds. Israel accused Hamas of “cynically using the hostages for propaganda purposes.” The live ones were photographed against the group’s banners and forced to wave to the crowd, while the coffins containing the bodies of four hostages returned last week were first put on public display against propaganda posters.

Freed Palestinian prisoners arrive in Ramallah in the West Bank

A bus carrying Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails has arrived in the West Bank.

As part of the agreements between Israel and Hamas, 641 Palestinians have been released. They were handed over to the Red Cross after Israel received the bodies of four Israelis previously held in Gaza. This completes the first phase of the agreement, which brought the number of Palestinians released to 1,776.

The prisoners were held in Israel’s Ofer and Ketziyot prisons. After their release, they were taken to Ramallah, where hundreds of people gathered outside the Cultural Palace. Families and locals greeted them with jubilation, chanting prayers and raising flags.

Many of the liberated could barely contain their emotions as they hugged their loved ones after years of separation. Among them, however, were those who complained of deteriorating health.

Ramallah and El-Bireh Governor Leila Ghanim said some former prisoners suffered from skin diseases and needed medical attention. She also noted that Israel had tried to humiliate the released by forcing them to wear “provocative” clothes with offensive inscriptions, but the Palestinian side promptly provided them with new uniforms.

Read more HERE

[garudabluffs]

Jon Stewart on Israel's Widening War & Biden Admin's Stalled Ceasefire Attempts | The Daily Show SEPT. 24,2024

[quasonn]

Bringing attention back to this poem by Persian poet Saadi as recited by a local nai player, who became known as Uncle Janan after a snippet of his interview became viral where he recites Saadi's lines to express his deep anguish and sadness over the death of his sons who were ambushed and killed on the same day by the Taliban for being serving police in the city of Ghazni. You can read more about him from this piece in the kabul now: https://kabulnow.com/2020/07/wound-of-war-janan-plays-nai-for-love-of-lost-sons/

[saintheartwing]

Don’t know if you’ve ever seen Babylon 5, but there is a lot of parallels between the Narn/Centauri conflict and the war between Palestine and Israel.

“It no longer matters who started it, all that matters is who is suffering.”

https://youtu.be/A9v1jJ_ATec?si=QJPslsiyLwFKpA5k

Well I've never SEEN Bablyon 5. But the thing is I don't agree with that mindset. It DOES matter who starts a war. Under this logic, you'd call, say, the USA the bad guys in WWII just cuz they killed more German soldiers than the Germans killed THEIR soldiers. It's not about total numbers of dead. It's not even about how many civilians dead. It's about how and why a war started and who started it, because if you don't address these, you can't finish a war in a just resolution.

And no, I don't care about "peace". TECHNICALLY there'd be peace if a country at war is just NUKED OFF THE MAP. But that's not JUSTICE. People don't really want PEACE, they want JUSTICE when it comes to how conflicts end. They want a somewhat SATISFYING way to end a conflict. If the Israeli govt literally killed every single Palestinian that'd bring "peace" to the conflict but it clearly would be fucking HORRIFYING AND GENOCIDAL AND WRONG. And sure, if Israel was a smoking crater that'd bring "peace" to the conflict to but would ALSO BE FUCKING GENOCIDAL.

I don't want "peace". This isn't about give peace a chance. Peace without any terms, conditions, or understanding of how the conflict began and how it can be stopped is not real peace. Give me JUSTICE.