John Aziz Profile picture
British-Palestinian musician, peace activist, & analyst of Middle East politics & history. Writing in @TheAtlantic, @thedispatch, @foreignpolicy
Sue Strong @strong_sue@mastodon.sdf.org 🇺🇦 Profile picture Potato Of Reason Profile picture 3 subscribed
Apr 24 8 tweets 4 min read
Communist hordes are hyperactive on this app at the moment.

I think it's time for a Why Karl Marx Was Wrong thread.... Image Karl Marx's main theory that inspired communism is that by making a profit, capitalists are stealing from their employees.

This is a logical extension of the labour theory of value, in other words the idea that value originates from the labour of the workers.

Marx theorised that profit is STOLEN surplus labour value. Through the mechanisms of capitalism, the capitalist steals the labour value of the workers.

This makes workers natural class allies in the struggle against the capitalists.
Mar 28 4 tweets 1 min read
One of the most annoying things to me as a Palestinian is how we have consistently been promised extreme and maximalist victories by a succession of global vultures—Soviet Union, Iran, now Western leftists—but we always end up with nothing, no sovereign state & thousands of dead. They can parade around chanting "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free", but that's not actually going to create a state for Palestinians.

Creating a state for Palestinians will take hard work and actual diplomacy & negotiations with the government of Israel.
Jan 22 8 tweets 3 min read
Palestinians in Gaza cannot speak out easily against Hamas, so it falls upon diaspora Palestinians such as myself to criticise them twice as hard.

Anyway, Hamas' explanations for October 7 are a load of bull excrement 🧵 Image Hamas released a press statement saying they did not target civilians, or only did so accidentally.

But if that's true then why did Hamas fighters go into agricultural kibbutzes and a music festival and slaughter civilians, as well as raping women???? Image
Dec 1, 2023 4 tweets 1 min read
I'm a Palestinian man.

On October 7 Jewish women were raped by Palestinian terrorists.

I believe their testimonies. I saw the physical evidence in the Bearing Witness film.

I'm sick of seeing Jewish women's extreme trauma being ignored and dismissed as Israeli propaganda. I'm also sick of my own Palestinian concerns and disagreements with Hamas being dismissed as Israeli war propaganda.
Nov 8, 2023 5 tweets 2 min read
Hamas have been murdering Israeli civilians for decades. They violently oppress Palestinian dissent. They have stolen billions in aid money from Palestine. They started wars that have killed thousands of Palestinians.

Opinions like this make me feel ashamed to be Palestinian. Image To be clear, overall I am proud to be a Palestinian.

The struggles we have survived, included my own family's struggles, have been immense.

My father was hiding in a cave aged 6 years old during the 1967 war.

What I want is for Palestinians to find peace in our hearts.
Nov 7, 2023 8 tweets 2 min read
Thread analysing what has gone wrong for Palestinians since 1948:

Military solutions have been extremely successful for Israel.

Israel gained independence via militant struggle against British rule, and preserved independence in wars/struggles in 1948, 1967, 2000. It is very appealing for Palestinians such as Hamas and Fatah to look at Israel's success with armed and struggle and think: wow! They have done so well.

Why can't we do that? Let's invest in guns and rockets!

That is essentially what Hamas has tried to do.
Nov 1, 2023 5 tweets 2 min read
The Western anti-Zionist leftists are so, so sure that Hamas are doing this for equal human rights

🙄🙄 Image Hamas: "we want to murder Jews"

The West: "you want equal rights and an end to the occupation"

Hamas: "it's about murdering Jews until the trees and rocks cry out there is a Jew hidden behind me."

The West: "yes, you are concerned about Israeli settlements in the West Bank."
Nov 1, 2023 8 tweets 3 min read
I've heard many times over the past few weeks the allegation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

I don't agree that this is true.

I have no trouble criticising Israel. I am an independent voice criticising both sides.

However I see no evidence this is true.

(Thread) 👇 First, here is the definition of genocide, as per the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Certainly, many people in Gaza have died during this conflict.

But why have they died?

They have died in a war started due to the October 7 terrorist attack.

Started by Hamas. Image
Oct 31, 2023 7 tweets 1 min read
Who remembers after 9/11 when the U.S. was accused of genocide for invading Afghanistan to dismantle Al-Qaeda?

Who remembers when mere weeks after 9/11 Western capitals filled with mass protests calling for the abolition of the USA?

No? This didn't happen?

Why??? 🤔🤔🤔 I don't mean to suggest that I wholly endorse the war on terror.

In many ways, the USA made strategic errors after 9/11.

But nobody was marching in London or Paris to abolish the USA. Nobody except the most extreme Islamists suggested that 9/11 was justified.
Oct 29, 2023 10 tweets 2 min read
I'm Palestinian but I was angry with Hamas after the October 7 massacre.

I knew it would lead to war.

Yesterday I watched an anti-Zionist protest demanding the dismantling of Israel take over London.

This is the same ideology that caused the massacre in the first place. Not to say that every protestor is a knowing Hamas supporter.

But what unites them and provides them with a common cause is anti-Zionism.

The desire to dismantle Israel. The country that was attacked on October 7. Their solution is to dismantle it.