Image is of the King of Morocco meeting with John Kerry (a species of demon that plagued Hexbear in the misty past).


This preamble comes courtesy of @LargePenis@hexbear.net:

Morocco (Al Maghrib), or more officially the Kingdom of Morocco (Al Mamlaka al Maghribiya), is a country located in the northwestern edge of the African continent. The name Morocco comes from the Spanish name Marruecos, which itself comes from the name of the city of Marrakesh. In Turkish for example, Morocco is known as Fas, mainly because Turks knew the land of Morocco through the city of Fes. Morocco is regarded as part of the Arab World and Arabic is the main language amongst the population, with French and Berber languages also widely spoken in the country.

Morocco was the home of mostly Berber tribes until the Muslim conquest and the subsequent Arab migrations in the 700s under the Umayyads drastically changed the character of the country. A Berber commander, Tariq ibn Ziyad, would later cross the Strait of Gibraltar (Jabal Tariq) from the northern shores of now-Morocco and conquer Andalusia, which remained under Muslim rule for nearly 800 years. The country emerged as a significant regional power during the Almoravid and Almohad dynasties in the medieval period, known for their contributions to architecture, philosophy, and trade across North Africa and southern Europe. The current ruling dynasty of Morocco, the Alaouite dynasty, came to power in the late 1600s. The Alaouites claim descent from the Prophet Muhammad through his grandson Hasan ibn Ali, giving them religious legitimacy and political authority in the region. Despite the Shia-coded claim to legitimacy, the Moroccan royal family and the population mostly follow the Maliki school of Sunni Islam.

In the early 20th century, the Treaty of Fez (1912) created the French Protectorate of Morocco, negotiated largely without input from the Moroccan people. Moroccan lands were completely divided under French and Spanish zones, with thousands of colonists pouring into the country. The royal family frequently collaborated with colonial powers, suppressing local resistance movements and prioritizing European interests. Prominent anti-colonial uprisings, like the Rif War (1921–1926), were met with brutal crackdowns, enabled by Western-backed forces. Post-independence in 1956, Morocco maintained close ties with its former colonizers, fostering economic dependence on France and Spain. The monarchy’s alignment with Western geopolitical interests often undermined Pan-African and Arab unity movements.

During the Cold War, Morocco positioned itself as a staunch ally of the West, marginalizing leftist and nationalist factions within the country. The Green March of 1975 was a Moroccan state-organized movement to assert control over Western Sahara, a territory decolonized from Spanish rule but still awaiting self-determination. This march, supported by Western powers, particularly the United States, is often criticized as a colonial expansion disguised as a popular movement. By settling Moroccans in the disputed territory, the march disregarded the Sahrawi people’s right to sovereignty. U.N. resolutions on Western Sahara have seen limited enforcement, largely due to Morocco’s Western alliances shielding it from accountability. Western-backed security and intelligence partnerships continue to be the cornerstone of Morocco’s repressive nature towards any anti-colonial and leftist movements. In 2021, Algeria again severed diplomatic ties with Morocco, citing hostile actions and concerns over Morocco’s ties with Israel, which Algeria views as a betrayal of pro-Palestinian solidarity. The two countries have mostly clashed over the issue of Western Sahara other than a short war in the 60s over a border dispute, with Algeria continuing to support the Sahrawi independence movement.

Morocco’s relations with Israel have historically been discreet but significant, rooted in the presence of a large Moroccan Jewish diaspora in Israel. Former King Hassan II played a significant behind-the-scenes role in fostering covert ties between Morocco and Israel during his reign. King Hassan II is reported to have allowed Israeli intelligence access to critical information from a meeting of Arab leaders in Casablanca in 1965, which may have helped Israel prepare for the Six-Day War in 1967. His government provided a platform for discreet diplomatic exchanges and intelligence-sharing, including Morocco’s facilitation of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s visit to Israel in the 1970s. In 2020, Morocco formally normalized ties with Israel through the Abraham Accords, brokered by the United States, in exchange for U.S. and Israeli recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. Diplomatic and trade relations have since deepened, with agreements in fields like defence, agriculture, and technology. Despite official ties, Moroccan public opinion remains largely sympathetic to Palestinians, but such opinions are rarely considered by the royal family.

Morocco’s future is split between ambitious global aspirations and permanent domestic issues. The country’s co-hosting of the 2030 FIFA World Cup with Spain and Portugal is seen as a significant opportunity to showcase its shiny infrastructure and global presence. However, these achievements are often overshadowed by criticisms of its political culture, including the monarchy’s ceremonial practices, such as the humiliating tradition of publicly kissing the crown prince’s hand. Allegations surrounding King Mohammed VI’s personal behavior, including incidents of public drunkenness and alleged homosexuality continue to be a hot topic within opposition circles.


Please check out the HexAtlas!

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week’s thread is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.


  • Moss [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    9 hours ago

    Significant progress made on Lebanon ceasefire - France

    Michael Herzog, the Israeli ambassador in Washington, told Israel’s GLZ radio an agreement was close and “it could happen within day …We just need to close the last corners”, according to a post on X by GLZ senior anchorman Efi Triger.

    Hidden in the last paragraph of the article:

    Hezbollah, militarily more powerful than Lebanon’s regular army, has said it is defending the country from Israeli aggression.

    It vows to keep fighting and said it will not lay down arms or allow Israel to achieve political gains on the back of the war.

    So what does this mean? Is Israel exhausting it’s stocks of missiles? Has Lebanon been beaten down to much by Israeli airstrikes to keep going?

    Also if Hezbollah keep fighting, and they will, this doesn’t seem likely to change much. There’s also the likelihood of Israel just not honoring any kind of deal.

    Smarter hexbears please chime in

    • Commiejones [comrade/them, he/him]@hexbear.net
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      7 hours ago

      Never trust any talk of a ceasefire. It wont happen. isisrael will not stop its genocide in Gaza unless it is forced to. usa will not force isisrael to stop its genocide. The resistance will not stop until the genocide stops. There will be no ceasefire.

      Its a cease fire between Lebanon and isisrael and it is just a PR win for isisrael. It has no value because Lebanon’s government and military aren’t fighting isisrael, Hezbollah is. It will change nothing except isisrael will say “Hezbollah violated our ceasefire so the Lebanese people have no one to blame but Hezbollah for the genocide we are about to commit.”

      Hezbollah isnt involved in the ceasefire talks. The current proposal is that Hezbollah would disarm and leave the border, the Lebanese’s military would take their place and isisrael would withdraw. No mention of Gaza.

    • thethirdgracchi [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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      6 hours ago

      If Hezbollah wants to honor the memory of Nasrallah and not go back on their word, there will be no ceasefire with Hezbollah unless there is also a ceasefire in Gaza. This, as it stands, is a non-starter. Unless Hezbollah wants to capitulate to Israeli demands, the only “ceasefire” the Israelis can get is with “Lebanon” aka the government which is not currently fighting Israel anyway.

    • CleverOleg [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      8 hours ago

      I could see making a “ceasefire” deal with the Lebanese government and not Hezbollah as political cover. Perhaps “Israel” pulls its troops out of Lebanon and stops the bombing campaign. Then when Hezbollah continues attacking the north, the “Israelis” will say that they’re just being peaceful and Hezbollah is attacking them despite a “ceasefire” being signed. And then basically everything goes back to where it was just before “Israel” tried to invade Lebanon.

      But I am seeing reports (particularly on Al-Jazeera) that it’s a ceasefire with Hezbollah, and for that I have no idea. It would be hard to imagine Hezbollah capitulating, but just as hard to imagine Israel ending the genocide in Gaza.

    • miz [any, any]@hexbear.net
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      8 hours ago

      psyop to create impression of impending resolution, same way the Biden administration has been “working tirelessly for a ceasefire” for a year and continually promised something would resolve within “the next two weeks” like a dozen times

      if Hezbollah is not party to it then it is theatre

      EDIT: I forgot to say that the purpose of this is to deflate urgency because if people think a ceasefire is imminent they theoretically won’t consider action necessary

    • carpoftruth [any, any]@hexbear.netM
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      8 hours ago

      Is this ceasefire actually a ceasefire or is it capitulation on Israeli terms? The key thing to look for in these stories is if a term of the agreement is Hezbollah pulling back past the litani River. If that is part of the purported deal, it is negotiation of a Hezbollah surrender and not a ceasefire.

      • Twitter source

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        Elias Bou Saab, Deputy Speaker of Parliament, to Al-Mayadeen:

        In the coming hours or days, we will witness the announcement of a ceasefire

        • We will remain cautious because the experience with Netanyahu is not encouraging
        • Information received from the American mediator indicates that the last sticking point has been overcome
        • The committee that will supervise the implementation of Agreement 1701 may expand, but what is currently on the table are the United States and France
        • The committee tasked with supervising the implementation of the agreement is not authorized to work outside the text of Resolution 1701
        • The agreement will lead to the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces to the armistice line and the cessation of aggression and hostilities
        • We have not heard or been offered by anyone that there will be guarantees for any party’s freedom of movement
    • TomBombadil [he/him, she/her]@hexbear.net
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      8 hours ago

      Additionally unless Hezbollah has ceased to tie their struggle to Gaza there is simply no ceasefire with Hezbollah until Gaza is released from occupation.

      From the beginning Hezbollah has been clear about this. The new leadership has also reaffirmed it