Israel Is Losing And Black Nationalist Jacob Zuma's White Backer
The Relevant Reads Episode #1
Today we kick off the first edition of The Relevant Reads, the section of the The Relevant Information where I share with you guys the articles and papers that I find particularly interesting enough to want to share.
Israel is losing but Netanyahu won’t back down on his war aims, so says a piece published on the website of the Royal United Services Institute(RUSI), Britain’s oldest defence think tank (probably one of the oldest in the world too). The article was written by Alex Wolf, a post-doctoral fellow at Habib University in Karachi, Pakistan.
I haven’t previously read anything by Mr Wolf, and it appears this was his first time writing for RUSI, but his analysis was superb and I largely agree with his conclusions.
He outlined Israel’s war aims in both Gaza and Lebanon, and how it has fared so far a year since the current war started.
You can read it HERE
The EU Parliament’s largest grouping - the centre-right European People’s Party - seems to be normalising the so-called far right (I prefer their proper name- fascists - but that’s just me) by cooperating with them to set and pass policy, breaking the much vaunted cordon sanitaire Europe’s political class claimed to have placed around cooperating with fascists. This is happening despite most of Europe’s centre-right and centrists politicians continuing to pay lip service to the idea of opposing the ideas with the far-right.
But as we saw with French president, Emmanuel Macron’s cooperation with the the fascist National Rally of Marine Le Pen to ensure he got a prime minister to his liking, although the leftist New Popular Front coalition won the largest vote in the snap parliamentary polls he called in June this year; Europe’s center-right politicians prefer to ally with literal fascists aka the far-right and adopt their policies, even when there are less insane options on the left, like the Greens or Socialists willing to work with them.
Politico Europe, has a long piece out that delves into the new marriage between the EPP and all kinds of far-right movements from Giorgia Meloni’s(Italy’s PM from the fascist leaning Brothers of Italy movement) crew in the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, to Viktor Orban’s(Hungary’s PM) new Patriots for Europe bloc, in the European Parliament; despite working with the Greens and Socialists to give Ursula von der Leyen a second five year term at the helm of the EU.
You can read the Politico piece HERE
Veteran journalist and scholar, Dr James M. Dorsey dissects why Israel’s limited retaliation to Iran demonstrates that the US can stay Netanyahu’s hand, despite how much folks are inclined to believe otherwise.
Dr Dorsey’s premise aligns with my specific reading of why Israel conducted such an underwhelming strike, especially as its operational ethos seems to be designed around loud, impressive and overwhelming action.
On a bigger picture note, America utilising its various levers of dominance to impose its will on Israel over Iran, is another clear indication that the genocidal war being waged on the Palestinian people by the regime in Tel Aviv, is being done with the full approval of the United States.
Dr Dorsey’s piece is embedded below
If there’s one thing Western mainstream media can be counted on to do, it is to serve as court stenographers and to whitewash the reputations of functionaries in their governments seeking to build a publicly loved career post government work, or just wanting to feel better about their moral cowardice while in actual positions of power.
Politico has a magazine feature out on US Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, which she (with Politico’s help) paints herself in the colours of the mythical impartial professional, while the administration she is a part of oversees a genocide in Gaza.
For those as fascinated as I am by such pieces, you can read it HERE
Recently retired Australian Army officer (major general), Mick Ryan, has a very insightful article on his Substack which I read last week on North Korea’s entry in the Russo-Ukrainian War. He does a really brilliant job breaking down what that would mean for the Russian side, in terms of force deployment, logistics and even command and control.
His article is embedded below
Still on Ukraine, Kyiv Independent is reporting that the Pentagon has informed Kyiv/Kiev that the US will not impose new limitations on Ukraine’s use of American weapons if North Korea enters the war. What that actual translates to in reality, remains to be seen, seeing as it is the White House and not DOD that actually has the final say on imposing or removing any limits, on US weapons supplied to Ukraine.
But Kyiv Independent’s piece which also talks about the destruction of the town of Vochansk in Kharkiv/Kharkov Oblast is available HERE
Closer to home in South Africa, the African Report has a really educating feature (paywalled) out on someone that usually flies below the radar, a key backer of ex South African president Jacob Zuma, Louis Liebenberg, a White South African business man with a particularly colourful past, currently facing trial on 42 counts of fraud, racketeering, money laundering among other crimes.
That feature can be accessed HERE
Sudan War Monitor has a piece out on how Russian cargo planes have helped both sides in the ongoing War in Sudan. You can find that feature embedded below.
In Ethiopia, ACLED’s Ethiopian Peace Observatory published a weekly update that as always, shines a much appreciated light on the slow rolling collapse of Africa’s second most populous country.
A particularly interesting development for me was the bit about Amharan nationalist Fano rebel militias now clashing - in strength - with the Ethiopian National Defence Force in eastern parts of Amhara Region, which are mostly populated by ethnic Amharan Muslims, who are the opposite of the constituency associated with the Fano groups, that is, Amharan Orthodox Christians.
The Fano ideological current, has usually been linked to Amharan Orthodox Christian nationalism, so to find that Fano rebels might be getting stronger in Eastern Amhara where the anti-Abiy Ahmed rebellion has been relatively weak, might point towards a greater buy in to some form of ethnic secularised Amharan nationalism bhy Muslim Amharan communities in that area.
ACLED’s update can be read HERE
Ken Opalo, in his Substack publication, An Africanist’s Perspective, breaks down what an Harris or a Trump victory would mean for US policy in Africa. It’s a really superb piece of analysis that I am actually excited to recommend you go read.
One thing he recommended - that I totally agree on - was that the US should decouple its African policy from Europe (specifically France,), and the Middle East (specifically the UAE). I would go further and say that the US should decouple its Nigeria policy in particular from the UK, especially in the security realm.
France and the UAE are various levels of spoilers on the African scene, the French from a superiority complex that still refuses to engage with African states especially its former colonies, as sovereign and independent peoples that do not have to tow its preferred lines.
The UAE on the other hand is trying to build an 18th century colonial empire, where it extracts resources from African states it sets on fire by arming one side or the other in local political disputes in return for access to minerals and other raw materials, as part of its post oil economic future.
While the problem with the US tying its policies on Nigeria to the UK’s institutional knowledge and alignment, is that the UK has no clue anymore what it is doing in Nigeria itself. So where the US should be doing what veteran US diplomat Johnnie Carson has recently called for and deepen its strategic relationship with Nigeria, it is relying to a great extent on the UK that itself has no clue what it wants its own strategic relationship with Nigeria to look like.
You can read Ken Opalo’s fantastic piece which is embedded below
To round off this edition of The Relevant Reads, I want to share two pieces that those with a love for history and strategy would love.
The first is from WarOnTheRocks and is titled “Attrition’s Apostle? Reading Vegetius In An Age Of Protracted Warfare”. If you are a military strategy nerd, you likely have heard of Publius Vegetius Renatus and his De Re Militari, or its original name Epitoma Rei Militaris so you already know the direction the featured WarOnTheRocks piece is heading towards.
I cannot recommend it enough, and you can find it HERE
And finally Engelsberg Ideas, has a new essay out titled “How The US Origin Myth Triumphed Over History”, you can find it HERE and its a really interesting read if you are trying to understand the American establishment psyche in particular.
I hope you enjoy and learn from these reads and as always, comments, critiques, and criticisms are appreciated and much welcome. Even in criticism there is something to be learnt.
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