Is Raf OK? -- Installment #170
2025-03-18 -- Tel Aviv
First Time Here? Readers suggest starting with the expanded Gaza Explainer in #133 and #120.
Tags: 5 Min Read; Keystone Installment
Update: On March 23, after email release, the Fear section below was slightly expanded for clarity.
Mail
UNHCR Report Released
Which condemns Israel of… the crimes Hamas committed.
Who is on that UN committee?
Such Human Rights luminaries as Sudan, South Africa, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Ghana, Ethiopia, Dominican Republic, Congo, the Ivory Coast, China and other giants in the field.
The U.N. this week:
Above: Secretary General of the U.N. shaking hands with the leader whose solidiers just massacred hundreds (possibly thousands) of Alawites, fully documented on social media.
Should I listen to the UN?
Fear
Or should we listen to the fear:
Directly heard: Fresh, 2025 Israeli-Palestinian documentary co-production in the U.S. About the war and attitudes toward it. The West Bank Palestinian co-producer/director cannot be named, fearing violent consequences for her family and herself. [To be clear: The fear is of violence from Palestinians, not Israel or Israelis. C.f. King Abdullah I, et al.]
First hand accounts by IDF soldiers of Hamas using Gazans as human shields (en masse) and preventing Gazans from evacuating ahead of the IDF—including killing a Gazan family to set an example?
In the clip below, an Israeli journalist interviews Gazans who emigrated to Germany in years past. (20 min, Arabic w/English subs)
Channel 12 Interviews Gazans
Below: Not the entire truth, but part of it:
(I verified that a Druze was Acting President of Israel when the then-President left the position.)
That Iran Clip in #169
The clip on Israeli Channel 12 that you feature in #169 is identical to what is shown in the (fictional) TV series Tehran.
Great point!
The TV series Tehran (on Apple+ and "informal" channels) is eerily similar in its depiction of Tehran's upper crust and day to day. This show won an International Emmy Award in 2021 for Best Drama. Wikipedia page on the show.
Dept of The Invisible
Items invisible in the Western media. (Now combined with the Postmark concept, to help consolidate topics by locale.)
Lebanon
Firefights and rocket fire are escalating between Lebanese Hezbollah and the new Syrian regime. The Syrian army launched dozens of rockets (apparently katyusha type) towards Lebanese territory. Hezbollah loyalists use anti-tank missiles as well as rocket fire. There are deaths on both sides.
Lebanon's President a short while ago:
"What is happening on the eastern and northeastern border cannot continue, and we will not allow it to persist.
I have instructed the Lebanese army to respond to the sources of fire in Syria."
Wow. It is now a confrontation between the Lebanese army and the Syrian army.
A Lebanese Air Force plane attacked Syrian regime rocket launchers in the village of Khosh a-Sid Ali, in Syrian territory.
Social media asks: When was the last time you heard about an attack by the Lebanese Air Force?
(Answer: Never in history.)
Syria
That buzz a week or two back about a big reconciliation between Kurds, Druze and the new Syrian government? Yeah, no. That was an agreement to start talking... not an actual agreement...
Below: Syrian sources publish new documentation of the Druze in Suwayda in southern Syria throwing the Syrian regime flag to the ground over the city's government building and raising the Druze flag while firing into the air.
Reports from Germany continue on the topic of repatriating hundreds of thousands of Syrians back to Syria, including a substantial payment to the Syrian government. (Perhaps this is why Europe has ignored the recent massacres of minorities by Syria's new regime?)
Iran
One US dollar traded this morning at a rate of more than one million Iranian rials (more than one hundred thousand tomans).
A new low for the Rial.
Gaza
Below: Despite Hamas' whining, it seems there doesn't seem to be a shortage of food in the Strip:
Below are photos of a mass Iftar (breaking the fast) meal tonight in Nuseirat in the center of the Strip.
(There is similar footage from across Gaza.)
Israeli is making targeted strikes in Gaza against Hamas terrorists. Among the recent casualties: An Islamic Jihad member who was just released into Gaza in the recent hostage exchange.
IDF Spokesperson: Yesterday (Saturday), the IAF struck a terrorist cell in the Beit Lahia area, among them was a terrorist who infiltrated Israeli territory during the October 7th massacre. The terrorists struck were operating a drone intended to carry out terrorist attacks against IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip.
The Ceasefire is Over
Around 2:00 AM (local time) today (March 18), the IDF launched an extensive attack on the Gaza Strip from the air. Dozens of targets across the strip have been (and are still being) attacked.
According to the latest update from the Gaza Ministry of Health, there are 310 dead and hundreds injured. Many are missing. Among the dead are senior Hamas officials.
Egypt
Egyptian President: Egypt is suffering losses of approximately $800 million per month as a result of damage to Suez Canal revenues due to the "regional situation."
The situation is: Houthis blockading the Red Sea... that is the cause of these losses. (Egypt has profited tremendously—for 15+ years—providing logistics to Gaza [licit and illicit, taxed and untaxed]. Then the war started and Egyptian power brokers pocketed, it appears, a couple hundred million dollars charging Gazans to leave. Now they pay a price?)
Israel
Factoids (from various Israeli press sources):
Some 16,000 laborers have come to Israel from India in the last year as part of an Israeli government effort to fill a void left when tens of thousands of Palestinian construction workers were barred from entering Israel after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack.
According to a recent poll
60% of the Israeli public think Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should resign, compared to 31% who think he should stay and 9% who are unsure. Among coalition voters, 24% think he should resign and among opposition voters, 94% think he should resign.
Sixty-four percent of respondents think Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar should resign, compared to 18% who think he should remain and 18% who are unsure.
75% of the public supports the launching of a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 onslaught, compared to just 15% of the public that backs Netanyahu’s opposition to such a probe.
Israeli choreographer Dor Eldar submitted the film “Rave” to the Exeter International Dance Festival. The film was accepted and scheduled. However, at the last minute, Eldar received a notice from the festival management informing him that the show was canceled due to pressure from sponsors and other filmmakers. Dor Eldar stated: I have always heard about anti-Semitism; now I know what it is and what it feels like to be excluded. Here is the 2.5 minute film. In English:
Relief Area
Alef - It's Purim Week...
(Well, Purim was last week!)
Bet
In the Purim Megillah, when listing the sons of Haman who were also killed, there is a list. This derivation:
Says:
Sinwaar, and Haniah, and Deif, and ... Nasrallah ...
The sons of Hamas...
Gimmel: Music Break: Noga Erez, the Succulent Sessions
18 Min all. All music. In English:
Yeah, I like her work. And the attitude.
Dalet: Rating Israeli Snacks
Hey
For 80 years the Palestinians have been making war on us. In the end, it's Qatar who, with a little money, breaks us....
(Referring to Qatar's successful influence buying within the office of the Prime Minister, which lead to a Shabak [Israeli FBI] investigation, which lead to Bibi firing the chief of Shabak, which has now, in the last 24 hours, created a full blown constitutional crisis. Note that Bibi chooses this moment to resume the war in Gaza.)
Vav
And what if Bibi asked you to jump out of the window?
The Government: The Ombudsman Forced Him To! (To ask)
Channel 14 (Israeli Fox News): It's because of the low political level (of the opposition)
Bibi Fanatics: Bibi wants me to jump out the window?
The Bibi Fanatic jumps... Hail Bibi! The questioner: It was a theoretical question!
Zayin
Are you a hostage, soldier in the reserves, resident of the region around Gaza or just live in Israel?
Ah shit, here we go again.
Chet
(non fiction, referring to Islamic fundamentalists like Hamas and the new Syrian regime)
Tet
The Gaza war has restarted.
I am off to a wedding.
Tomorrow evening is to be a huge demonstration against the actions of the Prime Minister. In Jerusalem and probably around the country.
That's life in Israel.
To Peace,
Raf
(Thank you A.K., M.T.)