Is Raf OK? -- Installment #178
2025-05-25 -- Seattle
First Time Here? Readers suggest starting with the expanded Gaza Explainer in #133 and #120.
Top Ten IsRafOK Entries: #85; #123; #128; #140; #144; #154; #161; #162; #164; #171
Tags: 15 Min Read; Huge Relief Area; Hostages held for 598 days now
There are two big stinks in the Israeli media right now:
Bibi at a press conference a few days ago saying that Hamas attacked "with flip-flops, pickup trucks and Kalashnikovs." This conference, his first time in front of the press in six months, is one of his attempts to rewrite history. The latest installment in Bibi's show: "How to prevent a State Commission of Inquiry."
Arguments surrounding Yair Golan's statement: "A sane country doesn't kill babies as a hobby." The right has gone wild spinning these words as a judgement about the army.
Discussing #1:
Israelis are sickened at Bibi's characterization of Hamas as weak or unfunded. The entire war has been an ongoing realization about Hamas and Gaza: Hamas was equipped with bottomless funding, weapons and manpower; and Gaza was not 140 square miles of squalor--it had luxurious areas, car dealerships and free-of-charge health care for all. Much of Hamas’ funding was provided on a monthly basis on a payment chain that Bibi set up and maintained for years. Everyone knows: Bibi has not even visited most of the areas attacked on October 7. Bibi’s strategy is to let the clock run and tell lies. He knows that public passion can only last so long.
One social media thread included this clip, from the first couple of weeks of the war, when a journalist visits the IDF base where Hamas weapons from October 7 were brought for storage and analysis (6 min, English subs by Raf):
These weapons represent preparation and funding. Not flip flops and "a few pennies" as Bibi said.
I recently finished the book The Gates of Gaza by Amir Tabon, a resident of kibbutz Nahal Oz. In the last few pages, he writes:
There are no leaders in this land these days--not on the Israeli side or on the Palestinian one. In their place are psychopaths and egomaniacs, some of whom dream of endless war and of annihilating the other side, whatever the cost; others are simply too weak and feckless to stand up to those who have dragged all of us into this nightmare.
About #2:
I start by copying an item from today's Relief Area:
Israeli Politicians & Pundits
Top: When the Right Calls for Genocide [which they do] -- the reaction? Ho Hum
Bottom Right: When the Left quotes those on the Right Calling for Genocide
Bottom Left: Now all our enemies will quote you!
[credit: Bob the Misanthrope/בוב המיזנטרופ]
Anyone wigged out by this incident is not paying attention to three things:
What the Right says. The Right is not Bibi. The Right is who has been controlling Bibi since the 2022 elections (with Bibi’s cooperation). Who is that? Ben Gvir and Smotrich. These guys openly advocate for forever war, zero food for Gaza, mass deportations of civilians and reestablishing Israeli settlements in Gaza.
What the Israeli Government is doing. Even though there has been almost 600 days of war, the Israeli government has yet to "solve" humanitarian aid or even show material progress. The word for this is "failure" -- the fundamental kind. A hefty portion of the casualties in Gaza since the restart in March, apparently including the two doctors with their children, has been in areas that were notified to evacuate days or weeks earlier. That said, most days see dozens of casualties. Many days see entire families killed. Yes, we understand that these families typically include Hamas officers and officials. But I suspect any observer would conclude, as I have, that the "collateral damage" formula has changed. (Has Gazan compliance with evacuation orders also changed? I have seen zero evidence that Hamas is preventing evacuations, as they did early in the war.)
Who Yair Golan Is & His Track Record. Yair Golan is leader of the Democrats party [current incarnation of the Labor party], and a reserve major general in the Israel Defense Forces. On October 7, he was among the first to appear on the front line, entering areas where trapped civilians were hiding and rescuing them himself. In other words: He isn't a child, he isn't a lightweight and his adversary is not the IDF but the government giving the IDF orders.
What Yair Golan himself said in response to the storm:
“I said this morning that we are a sane country that does not kill children. When ministers in this government celebrate the death and starvation of children, we must say so. I was referring solely to the most failed government in Israel’s history — not to the IDF. Our mission is to ensure that Israel remains a sane country that does not kill children either as a hobby or as a policy,” Golan declares.
Here is what Yair Golan said about Gaza in 2021:
And, now that we have (perhaps?) removed some of the smudge from his name, here is Yair Golan's response to the Bibi storm from #1 above:
Below: Street art of Yair Golan in honor of his heroism during the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel
Thank You to the Three Generals
I find the storm around Golan's statements to be purely the product of Bibi's poison factory. This factory defends Bibi and throws acid on everyone else.
As with everything else, decide who you want to associate with. I don't see a contest.
Thomas Friedman on Middle East Peace
Michel Martin interviews Thomas Friedman on PBS. 20 min.
Bibi chose peace with [far right Israeli minister] Smotrich over peace with Saudi Arabia--the most important country in the region.
No wonder the U.S. president seems to have dropped Israel from his middle-east calculus?
Mr. Friedman mentions something that he brought up in the immediate aftermath of October 7: Israel’s choice of launching a war in Gaza was both not his recommendation and, in many ways, is the choice of the weak, not the strong. (The strong wait to make battle their way on their timetable, not the enemy’s.)
To remind us all, Mr. Friedman, in the days prior to Israel's invasion of Gaza in October 2023, took the position that Israel, rather than attacking militarily, should have used Hamas' actions on October 7 as an opportunity: An opportunity to rub the world's nose in the reality of Hamas: That they are an organization bent on death and destruction; That they are enemies of both peace and the aspirations of Palestinians.
Instead, as we all know, Israel went to war.
And who is seen as the bad guy now?
This was brought to mind by this recent clip from the IDF:
The IDF spokesperson published a video with visuals of the terrorist activity being carried out by Hamas in western Gaza City, including the Shifa'a Hospital, the Islamic University in the city, and several schools. These civilian areas have received evacuation instructions, yet Hamas continues to use them.
Reportedly (from social media channels), Gazans consider these evacuation instructions unusual. They claim the instructions concern the evacuation of tens of thousands of people within Gaza City itself (in its west) - something that is happening for the first time since the start of the war.
I have seen... I do not know how many of these videos in the trolling I do for this blog. The video represents what a military does: There is military activity by Hamas, so the Israeli military is going after them, wherever they are. But this is simply never going to look good. Tunnels under civilians are, from a "social media impact" perspective, never going to be successfully attacked.
The bottom line: Not everything can be solved with a gun or a fighter jet.
Mail
Wow, Thank You!
Y'all sent in multiple items for the relief area, thank you! (Including one authored by a reader using AI.)
Dept of The Invisible
Items invisible in the Western media. (Now combined with the Postmark concept, to help consolidate topics by locale.)
Israel - Yair Golan
Region
Turkey
Turkish journalist Rajip Soylu: A "hotline" has been established between Israel and Turkey to prevent military escalation between them in Syria.
A fifth meeting will be held between Turkey and Israel in Azerbaijan soon. There is progress in talks between the sides.
The new regime in Syria is also holding talks with Israel in Azerbaijan to prevent conflict.
Would any of us imagined this even nine months ago?
(For avoidance of doubt, the events in Lebanon and Syria, while concurrent with the Gaza war, are independent and could have occurred any time in recent years. Israel only acted when Hezbollah had started to discover the doctored pagers.)
Morocco
A popular video on Arab channels in recent hours:
IDF soldiers are training Moroccan soldiers, on Moroccan soil, in tunnel warfare, as part of the joint military exercise - "African Lion" held in Morocco.
Syria: No Longer Part of the Iranian Axis?
The "border guard" of Syrian President Abu Muhammad al-Julani seized a shipment of Grad rockets during an attempted smuggling from Syria to the Shiites in Lebanon.
The vehicle carrying the camouflaged rockets was captured in the Khoush a-Sid Ali area, close to the border with Lebanon.
There are two meanings here:
Syria is doing things today that it never would have under Assad, and
Hezbollah is still working to arm itself.
Lebanon
A Lebanese Druze leader, formerly a supporter of Hezbollah and the Assad regime, drops a bombshell: "I support peace with Israel"
Wiam Wahhab, the Druze leader who heads the Lebanese Al-Tawhid Party, said on May 7:
“Hezbollah’s weapons against Israel - they’re done with. Forget about them.
We are heading toward a hudna (truce) with Israel, which may develop into peace.
If the US brings about an Israeli withdrawal from the five disputed points in southern Lebanon (that Israel still controls pending full Hezbollah disarmament), we’re going for peace with Israel.
I support peace across the whole region - absolutely, absolutely.
We lost 75 years because we were tied to the Palestinian issue.”
Syria
Israel has been supporting Syrian Druze in a number of ways, including: Medical evacuations to Israeli hospitals, provision of supplies [non lethal, as far as I know], and opening the Syrian-Israel border for Druze to visit each other and their historic sites.
It is now reported that the IDF is operating a mobile forward medical facility to provide aid to the wounded in southern Syria, near the village of Hader.
Perspective:
Abu Muhammad al-Julani - then and now. (Does a suit change the soul? Do clothes, er, make the man?)
Baghdad: The Arab Conference Ten Days Ago
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in a speech to the Arab Conference in Baghdad May 17:
Call on Hamas to relinquish power in the Gaza Strip and hand over its weapons and those of the other armed factions in Gaza to the PA, which is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
A Hamas official rejected the call for them to lay down arms.
Qatar
Reports that President Trump is expected to receive a gift from the ruler of Qatar, a "flying palace" worth hundreds of millions of dollars - a Boeing 747-8 aircraft decorated with gold and luxury ornaments.
a) How many listening devices are in this plane?
b) Given that Qatar has corrupted the office of the Israeli Prime Minister and funded Hamas for many years, are we all living in Qataristan?
Yemen
An Israeli perspective on the U.S. exit from Yemen:
And, in the department of listening to intent and worldview from May 8:
Houthi leader Abd-Malek al-Houthi:
Since mid-March, the US has attacked Yemen 1,712 times.
During this period, we launched 253 launches of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones.
We shot down 7 American drones and 2 American F-18 aircraft.
The Americans were unable to subdue us. They failed and therefore stopped attacking.
The infidel and criminal Trump thought we would surrender, but that can't happen.
The missile we launched at Ben Gurion Airport crossed 4 layers of defense and showed how exposed the Israeli enemy is to the Houthi missiles.
In The Words of Mustafa Muammari, a Houthi comedian
(English subs )
Gaza
May 9: Gaza sources: Next week, bakeries in the Gaza Strip will be operating with the support of the UN World Food Program.
The price of a package of pita bread will cost 3 NIS (subsidized price). Contracts were made with the bakeries. There will be points of sale throughout the Strip.
Gazans are reporting a dramatic drop in flour prices in the Strip today.
A bag of flour that cost 1400 NIS yesterday dropped sharply today to 400 NIS. Apparently this change is a result of these reports.
And May 10:
Price drop in Gaza markets following reports of imminent arrival of aid and food (the American plan):
A kilo of sugar dropped from 85 NIS to 20 NIS
A package of yeast dropped from 35 NIS to 5 NIS
A liter of oil dropped from 65 NIS to 20 NIS
How could prices drop days or weeks before any new aid arrives? Because... there is food in the warehouses of Hamas and the merchant community. Prices change from moment to moment depending on the expected arrival of aid (aid, intended to be free of charge to all Gazans, immediately sends prices to rock bottom).
May 13, Gaza City market:
May 13, Khan Younis: Push starting a truck loaded with rice or flour:
(Above from a video that shows a named, heavily documented, event of May 13 (announced by the IDF and Gazans) in Khan Younis, so it is 100% sure to be a photo from May 13.)
And, from Gaza City area on May 17:
Observers: "A buff guy like that is not living in a place suffering from severe food shortages."
May 23:
In the past two-three days, aid trucks have been entering Gaza. The reports I read indicate 400-500 by now, a few dozen or more loaded with flour. Some number of the aid trucks have been hijacked and their contents stolen: "UN's World Food Program said 15 trucks were looted late on the night of May 22 in southern Gaza while en route to bakeries, and called for more Israeli involvement in the aid distribution process." Many others were under Hamas guard.
And then:
Sacks of flour with the World Food Organization logo are being sold in the market of the Bureij RC in the central Gaza Strip at a price of 1,450 shekels (about US$400.00) per sack.
There are multiple data points indicating that what looting is occurring is not by armed individuals and is not violent. One small clip:
And one more:
Theft of flour sacks in the Muassi area of Khan Yunis, in the south: The trucks stopped. Whoever can—takes. A result: The price of flour has plummeted in recent days.
According to Gazan journalists, the price of a 25 kg sack of flour near the truck is 40 shekels (appx US$11.00).
The farther one gets from the truck, the higher the price—ranging from 200 to 700 shekels (appx US$55 and up).
May 25:
Abu Khader from Deir al-Balah: Today I went to buy a kilo of flour.
I asked the seller: How much does a kilo cost?
He answered: 50 NIS (about US$14)
I asked him: Are there worms in it (is it spoiled?)
He answered: No! It's (fresh), stolen today! Clean.
Below: A Gazan perspective on the U.S. President's visit to the Gulf:
Fuel
Remember that [May 4th] the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the hospitals in the Strip would run out of fuel within 3 days?
A miracle!
Today is Friday, May 9th, five days have passed and we still haven't heard that the hospitals have closed due to a fuel shortage.
Because Hamas has plenty in store.
May 16 marks the 15th day since the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza declared that hospitals in the Strip would shut down within 3 days due to a fuel shortage.
"The miracle of oil continues," say some observers. (There are also reports that the IDF has been allowing fuel tankers into Gaza specifically to fuel generators at hospitals. This has been below the radar, it seems, and seems to be an example of the IDF ignoring what the Israeli government directs and doing what is right.)
"Money Laundering"
Militarily
Sidebar: You have no idea how sick I am of combat videos. They all look the same: Night vision cameras; soldiers going up stairs; Shooting from windows; Targeted strikes on a single room within a building or a single floor; Tunnel footage.
A year and a half... of the same footage.
The IDF continues to find and destroy tunnel infrastructure in Rafah and Khan Younis. There have been targeted strikes on specific Hamas members including senior figures and Hamas agents who pose as journalists (there are many of these).
The latest tunnel documented to the public in Rafah (just discovered in recent days):
And its destruction:
During the activities of Brigade 188's combat team forces in the Rafah area, two terrorists from the Hamas terrorist organization surrendered and were taken for interrogation by Shin Bet.
During their interrogation by Shin Bet, the terrorists provided significant intelligence information, which indicated the location of an underground infrastructure in the area. The infrastructure served as a place of residence and organization for central terrorists from the Hamas terrorist organization in the 'Shaburah' area in Rafah.
Under intelligence guidance, fighters from the Yahalom unit and other forces, under the command of the 188th Brigade combat team, began an operation during which they located the underground infrastructure, which is about a kilometer long and located at a depth of about 25 meters.
This is exactly the same kind of content as during the first six months of the war.
It just never ends.
300-500 miles of tunnel under a strip of land 25 miles long.
Some informed sources say less then a third has been discovered and destroyed. Given all the arms factories and safes full of cash found in discovered sections, imagine how much remains….
Another year and a half to go? Two years?
Below: The European Hospital in Gaza... Featuring a Hamas Tunnel:
I am not the only one sick of these videos. There is a spate of social media clips out of Gaza of Gazans:
a) Asking to be allowed to go to Libya (following reports in the press that this is being discussed)
b) Demanding that Hamas leaders outside Gaza (who are doing the negotiating with Israel) come to Gaza to see and live its life--"Then you will give all the hostages for nothing in exchange"
c) Telling Hamas leadership to give up its attitude of strength, "What do we have? A few AK47's? Give them up already!"
Relief Area
Alef
Bet: Yemen
Yahya al-Sayani, the Houthi Deputy Minister of Transportation, at a press conference from Sana'a Airport:
"Sana'a Airport will resume operations soon."
A response:
Captioned (in Arabic): Sana'a Airport returns to service.
(Of course, the plane is 100% Houthi-made)
Gimmel
Gaza: Workshop for repairing 20 NIS bills. The rapid drying stage.
Dalet
אני מתחיל לחשוד שהוא לא באמת מר ביטחון, מר כלכלה והיחיד שיכול להשפיע על האמריקאים
I am starting to suspect that he [Bibi] is not Mr. Security or Mr Economy or the Only Who Can Influence The Americans.
Likud, In another league.
Spoof on actual Likud campaign poster.
Hey
(credit: Open AI. (2025). Sora.)
Vav
Zayin
You've been dropped from the league
Chet: How the Shia see Tr*mp's Visit to Saudi...
(An American might say: Who gets the milk? The U.S. or the pockets of D.T.?)
Tet
(Right to left)
I have in my pocket a book of psalms that protects me!
I have an American passport [American’s are getting preferential releases from Hamas captivity]
Yod: Bibi and his Posse
The grenade: Conscription Law [that authorizes and compels the IDF to draft the haredim]
Bibi to Army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir: Quick! Why aren't you jumping on it?
(This is in the context of the IDF arresting draft dodgers, which seems to have been launched on May 13 and is expected to run for a few days.)
From the news:
Currently, approximately 80,000 Haredi men between the ages of 18 and 24 are eligible for military service and have not enlisted.
The IDF in the coming weeks will complete sending out draft orders to 24,000 Haredi men, wrapping up an effort that began last summer but has seen only a handful enlist. As of late April, only 232 of those who have received orders have enlisted — 57 of them in combat roles.
In total, just over 1,800 Haredim have enlisted in the IDF since last summer, far fewer than the military’s goal of 4,800.
As of early February, arrest warrants had been issued for 1,212 Haredim who ignored multiple enlistment orders, a number that has likely increased in the interim.
Chaf: Headline in the Politics section
Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef: "If they arrest yeshiva students [for ignoring draft call up orders] - we will all go abroad."
(The spiritual leadership of the Shas party and the former chief rabbi came out against capturing deserters: "There is no reason to stay [in Israel] if we do not have Torah.")
Lammed: Travail of the Prime Minister:
Continue the war [what his extremist ministers insist on]
Get a meeting with Trump [what Bibi wants]The Prime Minister
Mem
A thousand reasons to be grateful to Bibi
You are taken hostage, you breathe, you get up in the morning, because that is how it is... [e.g. Bibi will do nothing for you if you are taken hostage.]
Nun
Dear Yuval, If you win tonight [in Eurovision] it will only be thanks to Bibi and military pressure.
(Applying the רק ביבי - "only Bibi" - crowd and the far right mantras to... everything. Because we all know by now that Bibi is "Mr. Security" and is the only person who can keep Israel safe--Bibi's slogans for years.)
Below: Israel's entry in the 2025 Eurovision, Yuval Rafael. It placed 2nd. In English, French and Hebrew.
Pey: From Palestinian Social Media
Samech: Israeli Politicians & Pundits
Top: When the Right Calls for Genocide [which they do]
Bottom Right: When the Left quotes those on the Right Calling for Genocide
Bottom Left: Now all our enemies will quote you!
In the "department of wild" is a recent article about women serving in combat roles in the IDF. (Video in English -- 35 min.)
In the “department of adaptation,” Israeli’s regularly blow off air raid sirens, largely triggered by Houthi missiles. Months ago I heard an army analyst say it is time to stop even sounding the alarms. His rationale? More people are getting hurt running to shelters (falling, etc.) than are getting hurt by the missiles themselves.
In the “department of sanity” I recommend Rabbi Jill Jacobs, who spearheads the Jewish justice organization T’ruah. She published a useful resource: “Criticism of Israel and Antisemitism: How to Tell Where One Ends and the Other begins.” It is 13 pages long and worth it. (Thank you Rabbi Jay LeVine of The Kavana Cooperative, Seattle, for this pointer.)
In Seattle it is sunny and the days are long. Next stop: California.
To Peace,
Raf
(Thank you A.K., M.T., M.R.)