Today #Russia and #China play best friends forever and #USSR had been traditionally placed in the same “communist” basked as China. Some fun facts that especially tankies are getting completely wrong today.^1
Since 1950’s China and USSR were actually conflicted over each other’s interpretations of #Marxism and in 1960’s the conflict nearly escalated into a full-scale nuclear war between the two countries.
China criticised CPSU (Communist Party of Soviet Union) over Soviet invasion of #Czechoslovakia (1968)^2 and “Brezhnev Doctrine” which denounced any Marxism version outside of the Soviet one as “reactionary” (Marxist newspeak for “heresy”). This included both Czechoslovak reforms and Mao’s Cultural Revolution in equal manner. At that time China actually developed complex relations with Eastern Bloc countries such as Romania and Czechoslovakia behind Kremlin’s back.
Essentially, everyone called each other “reactionary” and claimed their Marxism is the correct one. Any resemblance to past religious wars is entirely incidental. 😉 In 1968 Chinese diplomat Zhou Enlai speaking in Romanian embassy in Beijing called Soviets for “fascist politics, great power chauvinism, national egoism and social imperialism”.^3
Does that ring any bells? 😉
Soviets and China had a number of unresolved border issues in Manchuria. In 1968 China started escalating these, actually killing Soviet border guards. Moscow, knowing of China’s nuclear weapons and Mao’s confrontative attitude preferred to deescalate… which only encouraged Chinese.
Does that remind anything from contemporary history? 😉
At the peak of the conflict in 1969 USSR found itself in the position of a country with high-tech army challenged by a low-tech army which relied on millions of conscripts and human wave tactics.
Does this ring any bells? 😉
In 1969 Soviet army managed to push back overwhelming several Chinese offensives near the island of Zhenbao in spite of their overwhelming numbers with ratios up to 1:10 Soviet to Chinese. That was possible primarily due to the technical advantage, such as then-advanced T-62 tanks.
A ceasefire was signed in 1969 - on Chinese side by the very same Zhou Enlai who called Soviets “fascists” only a year before, but the actual peace agreement was only signed in 1991. The conflict was only completely resolved in 2008 (!) when Russia ceded 340 km² of the disputed lands to China.
As you can see, contrary to the mythology carefully constructed by modern “geopolitical realists”, there’s nothing constant in Russian or Soviet policies. Russia can not always win armed conflicts, it can cede territories and in general conflicts can be won in spite of imbalance of power. Oh, and calling others “fascists” was used by everyone and Russia was both an user and a recipient of this nomination.
After 75 years of failure, one would imagine that a people would learn what works and what doesn’t, both from their own experience, as well as the experience of others.
In the #KhartoumResolution rejecting any accommodation with #Israel that was agreed on by the #ArabLeague less than 3 months later, the war is referred to unironically as the #Israeli “aggression of June 5.”
@plink@palestine@israel Having now skimmed through dozens of updates on that link, 1,000s of words, the fact that #Israel conducted an illegal act of war against a civilian building on Iranian soil that killed 16 people recently is never mentioned, with the missile strike on #Damascus is only vaguely mentioned 3 times. It is never labelled an 'unprecedented escalation', despite that being just as true as the latest development.
Also not mentioned by the #NYT is the fact that the 1st April Israeli strike was widely condemned as yet another breach of international law —by the #UN, the #EU, the #ArabLeague, the #OIC, the #GCC and dozens of national governments—but was not condemned by the US government.
Also not mentioned at all the highly pertinent fact that Israel (and its primary backer and weapons supplier the #USA) has spent six months committing atrocities against millions of civilians in #Gaza, with more children, more journalists, more healthcare workers, more humanitarian aid workers, and more UN employees violently killed than in any other conflict since at least the Rwandan genocide (and in some cases going back to WWII). Israel is responsible for the most rapid deterioration of the nutritional status of a civilian population since WWII.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced $6 million in humanitarian assistance to those affected by conflict in Gaza and Sudan during his ongoing visit to Egypt. “There are huge and urgent humanitarian needs in both Gaza and Sudan, and it is important that New Zealand continues to make its contribution to international...
This 26-minute video of the Arab League’s presentation to the ICJ absolutely shreds any semblance of legitimacy in respect of Israel’s Zionist reign of terror over the Palestinian lands since 1917!
Despite its legalese, it’s well worth taking the time to watch! You’ll be stunned!
“Arab League Shocks the World, Humiliates Israel at ICJ”
#China has entered the room, with extremely carefully crafted words from FM #WangYi.
#Yi said conflict in #Gaza "is causing massive casualties among innocent civilians, leading to serious humanitarian disasters and accelerating the spread of negative spillover effects" without saying who is at fault and without using the word #genocide.
"Influential countries, in particular, need to play an objective, impartial and constructive role," said Yi & #Gheit of #ArabLeague.
"Zionists all hate Palestinians and want to ethnic cleanse them."
Literally every Zionist and Jewish protest: 100k people singing songs for peace together
We don't want this war. Never did. We love being the only democracy and only safe state in the middle east for LGBTQIA+ folks. We love each other, love our Beduin, Druze and Muslim Israeli brothers and sisters. We want peace. But then Gazans behead our children while screaming "Yehud" (Jews) and the world denies it. Then there's war. #israel
ICYMI
BREAKING: #ArabLeague Divided over five important clauses that could not be adopted causing merger of Arab League summit and Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit.
The clauses that were endorsed by 11 states and rejected by 4 states:
Preventing the use of American and other military bases in Arab countries to supply Israel with weapons and ammunition.
Freezing Arab diplomatic, economic, security and military relations with Israel.
Threatening to use oil and Arab economic capabilities to pressure to stop the aggression.
Preventing Israeli civil aviation from flying in Arab airspace. /1
#ArabLeaders and #Iran 's president are in the #Saudi capital Saturday for a #summit meeting expected to underscore demands that fighting in #Gaza end before the #Israel#Hamas war draws in other countries.
The #EmergencyMeeting of the #ArabLeague and the Organisation of #Islamic Cooperation #OIC comes after Hamas #militants bloody October 7 attacks that #Israeli officials say left about 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians, and 239 taken hostage.
The Iranian president is hoping to get consensus among the 57 countries that are attending the joint Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit as he aims to demand a complete boycott of oil and gas supplies to Israel.
He's is going one step further in demanding a ban to selling arms to Israel , and that Arab countries impose a no fly zone over their air spaces for Israeli flights until there’s a resolution to the conflict.
Dorsa Jabbari
For Arab nations, Gaza catastrophe a mere blip in normalising relations with Israel
What has provided Israel complete impunity is the increasing indifference of Arab countries towards the Palestinian right to a state, writes Zahid Hussain.
I've been learning a lot about the history of the Israel/Palestine conflict, and the more I learn the more sympathetic I am to Israel's position. Without context it's easy to sympathize with the underdog and see them as the bad guys, but it seems like they've been showing a tremendous amount of restraint compared to how they have been treated historically by their repeatedly defeated foe. Some of the things Israel is being criticized for, their opponents did to them far worse when given the opportunity. In regards to attacks on civilian structures, suffering of civilians, and accusations of ethnic cleansing, for example:
In 1948, Jordan, while fighting for Palestinian Arabs as part of the Arab League, annexed Jerusalem and the West Bank. Once in control they ethnically cleansed the area of Jews, destroyed almost all their structures, and denied Jews Jordanian citizenship while granting it to Arab Palestinians.
"For the first time in 1,000 years not a single Jew remains in the Jewish Quarter. Not a single building remains intact. This makes the Jews' return here impossible"
"The operations of calculated destruction were set in motion. I Knew that the Jewish Quarter was densely populated with Jewish populations who caused their fighters a good deal of interference and difficulty. I embarked, therefore on shelling of the quarter with mortars creating harassment and destruction. Only for days after our entry into Jerusalem, the Jewish Quarter become their graveyard. Death and destruction reigned over it. As the down of May 28th was about to break, the Jewish Quarter emerged in convulsive cloud-a cloud of death and agony" -Abdullah el Tell, a commander of the Arab Legion
Israel has been playing by more modern, humane, restrained rules of engagement and has been rewarded for it with constant guerilla attacks, while the world criticizes them for punching down at a conquered still-hostile enemy that once punched down at them.
New Zealand announces humanitarian assistance to Gaza, Sudan (www.voxy.co.nz)
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced $6 million in humanitarian assistance to those affected by conflict in Gaza and Sudan during his ongoing visit to Egypt. “There are huge and urgent humanitarian needs in both Gaza and Sudan, and it is important that New Zealand continues to make its contribution to international...