Is Raf OK? -- Installment #182
2025-06-15 -- Jerusalem
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: 4 Min Read; Relief
2012: Sacha Baron Cohen in The Dictator:
The current chapter, War with Iran, has long been the most likely result of the 20-year struggle of the West-vs-Khomeni’s Bomb. The West did what it did vis-a-vis North Korea. And has the results it has. That part of the world lacks a player like Israel. Given the recent failure/dead in the department of Tr*mp’s attempt at negotiation with Iran, and Iran’s ongoing violence against its neighbors (with ballistic missiles and proxy armies), the entire region is celebrating this setback.
Whether it lasts four months or a couple of weeks, Iran has made it clear—since October 7—that it is not building all that weaponry for show.
Below: Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Air and Space Forces, killed in the Israeli attack, previously stated in a television interview:
In Jerusalem
The quiet of a country at war:
Footage from Iranian social media: Much of it is taken from cars on the road. You see traffic on the roads. Driving right next to columns of smoke from bombed military sites.
In Israel, some smaller synagogues are operating. We didn't go to our intended Friday night dinner as there was a "pre warning" to stay close to a secure room.
Stores are open. Buses and trains are on a kind of emergency schedule.
In the era of knowledge, the IDF sees when there are launches in Iran and gives an early warning to stay close to safe rooms (it takes about 13 minutes for launches from Iran to arrive in Israel).
What may not be visible: Israel has been attacking Iranian military sites continually. Without pause, based on the feeds I watch. Part of the early attacks, and the on-ground operations at the very beginning, was disabling many of the tractors that pull the rocket launchers.
The Arab-Israeli contractors from Sur Baher, Jerusalem are here on time (Sunday morning). There was a siren in this area at around two AM (we didn't get up because it was in the next neighborhood over). The painter says that though Sur Baher has bomb shelters, many residents go outside to watch the "show."
Mail
Dept of The Invisible
Items invisible in the Western media. (Now combined with the Postmark concept, to help consolidate topics by locale.)
Israel
Counting the Days of Deprivation -- 15/6/2025
Today is 618 days, which is one year, eight months, one week, and one day in which 53 of our brothers and sisters are being held in hell, destitute by the Israeli government and by Minister Ron Dermer, Head of the Negotiation Team on the Kidnapped Issue, The Failed and Obstructing Minister.
618 days in which the families of the kidnapped suffer indescribable suffering.
618 days in which we are all kidnapped.
As in #181, I want to not forget the counterpoint: Hamas is in no rush release hostages. They held Gilad Shalit for five years and Avera Mengistu for ten. The key sin of Dermer and Bibi is failing to engage Saudi Arabia in a regional framework. This sin is a direct result of the choices Bibi made to stay in power.
A Raf saw: Extremists need each other. Each justifies the existence of the other. Bibi and Dermer need Hamas and Hamas needs them. Yes, either would exist without the other, but they essentially feed and support one another.
Fun Fact: The University of Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia, has a major in Hebrew Language and has for some years. I studied alongside some of those students at the Middlebury College Hebrew School.
Iran
Iranian Opposition
Above posted by Yasmine Pahlavi, wife of Reza Pahlavi, the Iranian Crown Prince (son of the last Shah of Iran)
Below: From an Iranian opposition channel:
Below: Iranian opposition channels claim that senior Iranian officials have fled Tehran to Russia. (Despite the closure of Iranian airspace to civilian aviation....)
This is documentation of the escape of senior Iranian regime officials and local oligarchs through the Mehrabad airport, despite the air blockade imposed by the Iranian aviation authorities.
Below:
The difference between a terrorist attack (Iran's missile hitting central Israel)
And attacking terrorists. (Israel's attack on a senior IRGC officer in Tehran)
First Ever... Evacuation Notice
The IDF spokesman in Arabic recently issued an evacuation warning to anyone in Iran's weapons and ammunition manufacturing plants, and the industries that support them:
“You must vacate the premises, permanently, until further notice.”
For The History Books
Gholam Ali Rashid, commander of Khatem al-Anbiya, who was killed in the opening strike on Thursday morning, recounts what Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who was killed in 2020 and was the architect of the current Iranian military doctrine, told him:
I built 6 armies for Iran - outside of Iran:
Hezbollah
Hamas
Islamic Jihad
The Houthis
Syria
Al-Hashd al-Shaabi (in Iraq)
Any enemy who wants to fight Iran will have to go through these 6 armies - and will not be able to!
Gaza
Has dropped off the radar of every feed I watch.
Relief Area
Alef: RE Wedding
Q: Why did Israel attack Iran now?
A: Because Sarah doesn't like the bride!
(Avner Netanyahu, elder son, was to be married today. The wedding is cancelled.)
Bet
Gimmel
Dalet
The People of Israel Live, but are underslept...
Hey
(Styled like the alerts we get on our phones.)
Vav
If the air force could stop teasing us and just eliminate Ali Khamenei
That would be wonderful
Zayin
Right to left:
Netanya (city in central Israel)
Natanz (Iranian nuclear facility)
Chet: Game Show!
What services are considered "critical" [and therefore stay open] during wartime?
a) Healthcare and counseling services
b) Firefighting
c) Security services (Police dept, etc)
d) Religious councils and Mikvaot [without the Mikvaot, religious folks don’t have sex]
Tet
The Six Day War had Bob Dylan singing to troops. We have Caitlyn Jenner drinking wine in a bomb shelter
(Caitlin Jenner came to Israel as a keynote for the Tel Aviv Pride events, and then got stuck here when the current chapter started.)
Yod: First photos of the Iranian nuclear scientists
Chaf: June 14
Iran announced the closure of its airspace until further notice.
Not including the Israeli Air Force.
And with that, we are sitting down to eat with the contractors.
To Peace,
Raf
(Thank you A.K., M.T., S.D.)