We started off the weekend with a real BANG here in Israel. Literally. There were loud booming sounds around 8am as IDF jets scrambled and intercepted a rocket and a suicide drone over Akko, only about 12 miles down the road. Akko is a world heritage sight on the gorgeous Mediterranean coastline. It is famous for its Crusader structures – immense hospital, Knights Templar dining hall, fortress, tunnels, chapels – as well as its rich history as a trading town and jewel of the Sultanate. This multicultural Arab Muslim and Christian as well as Jewish city is host to a thriving souk, several historic mosques, Franciscan and Orthodox churches, as well as a farmers’ market and numerous synagogues. There’s no other place quite like it, and whenever we have visitors, we make it a point to take them here. Hizbulla has no regard whether they are targeting Jew or Gentile, modern or historical, as long as it’s Israel.

I’m writing another (paid) article on comedy during the war. Israelis find things to make fun of or we would surely go mad. There has to be humor even in the darkest recesses. It’s one of our coping mechanisms and means of survival. So, hopefully by now everyone has heard that the US was building a pier to be able to unload groceries to Hamas…Oops. I mean Gaza. Kinda like door to door same day delivery. Because dropping MREs from airplanes and killing innocent civilians when the parcels fell on their heads just didn’t work. And for some reason, the Biden admin didn’t believe that the 180+ truckloads/ day that Israel was allowing in was getting hijacked by the terrorist organization. How could it be?

So the US sunk over $320 million taxpayer dollars to build a pier. Only, the army engineers were being shot at and were dodging Hamas launched RPGs, so they subcontracted the project over to the UK naval engineers who charged an additional unholy amount to the US. Well, the pier was up and operational for about ten days before it was reported that Hamas operatives were stealing the food off trucks before it could reach the civilian population. “We couldn’t believe it. Eleven trucks were cleaned out by Palestinians on the journey to the World Food Program warehouse in Deir ElBala,” a UN official told Reuters.” “They just basically mounted on top of the trucks and helped themselves to the food parcels.”

A Gaza civilian told our Arutz 12 News, “There is a lot of theft of the aid. It is no longer just Hamas. We see how Gazans just help themselves. There is no one to secure it and in the end it does not reach us. It winds up on the black market in Khan Younis and Rafia. Israel just pulled out of the middle of Gaza and now reverting us in chaos. Every man for himself, looking out for his own interests. Just anarchy.” The news reported that since the start of the war, Hamas has made over $500 million selling stolen goods at inflated prices to those with the most cash.

Also, as if this is not irony enough, the American-designed pier wasn’t built to withstand waves any taller than 3 feet nor could it handle sustained winds of less than 15mph, I kid you not. In fact, every trial of this type of pier has been a complete failure. So you’ll never guess what happened…. No really. I dare you to take a guess.

As Deputy Press Secretary for the Pentagon, Sabrina Singh, stated: On Saturday, May 25, four U.S. army vessels supporting the maritime humanitarian aid mission in Gaza were affected by heavy sea states, causing the motorized pier sections, which are used to stabilize the Trident Pier, to break free from their anchors due to a loss in power. Two of the pier sections washed ashore North of Gaza on the Ashkelon Beach. The other two had to be searched for with the assist of the Israeli navy recovered. Now highly damaged, they remain ‘in the shop’ being fixed by a bunch of local Israeli dockworkers and welders in Ashdod. They will then be towed back to Gaza and reinstated. I’m sure you can only imagine the memes and comedy sketches that have been going around on this subject.

So later Friday, I had morning coffee with another lovely neighbor who I hope to introduce you to soon. Then it was off to write a blogpost, followed by last minute cooking and cleaning for Shabbat. Hizbulla terrorists had been firing rockets and launching suicide drones into Northern Israel and parts of the Golan Heights all day. I believe there were over one hundred, sending many people scrambling into shelters. About an hour before sunset, when preparations are usually at their busiest (Shabbat is like a Thanksgiving meal…only it happens every week), we heard six very loud crashing booms. It sounded like steel beams being dropped into the large metal roll-off trash bin across the street. The whole house shook and the windows rattled. And my red alerts for this area were going crazy. Incoming!!!!

So what did John & I do? We rushed outside with our phones hearing the jets overhead. I needed to get shots of any action. I guess we’re bona fide Israelis now. Many of our neighbors were also in the street looking up, pointing and snapping photos. I managed to capture the puffs of smoke after the Iron Dome interception of six ballistic missiles overhead.

So being officially Israeli, I quickly uploaded all the excitement to my Instagram account @eemahleh and got back to making the salads. John went back in the house and finished setting the table. And the red alerts continued, just not so close to us.

OK. So let me confess. I am addicted to my iPhone. My entire life revolves around it. I’m sure you understand: appointments, recipes, prayers, news, photos, phone, entertainment and more. It’s all there. But on Shabbat, many of us in Israel put aside our electronics for the time of rest. So I didn’t see or hear the news. Few of us did.

Friday evening, shortly after Israelis, religious and secular, sat down to the traditional Friday night (family) meal, phones and TVs off, Joe Biden made his speech. I had heard people say get ready, because his poll numbers seemed to drop after the Trump verdict. Dropping polls never spell out good news for Israel. And BANG! Blindsided!

President Biden in an egregious and bold move on Shabbat, when Israel would neither hear nor respond, held a press conference. Not only was the premise an outright fabrication, but it put our government in a horribly tight spot. I will post the X statement he made to illustrate the point. Note the wording…

“Israel has offered a roadmap…”. Neither Netanyahu nor the Knesset members nor the military had any inkling this was constructed, much less even a thing. It came out of nowhere. There was no plan. There were no talks. There was no agreement. Biden was painting Israel into a corner when there would be no immediate response. Shabbat, remember. It was very tricksy. Very evil to do this behind a sovereign government’s back.

Netanyahu has said repeatedly that our mission in Gaza will not be finished militarily until there is no capability from Hamas to regroup, rearm or re-attack. The IDF would not stop the pressure on Hamas until all the hostages were found or brought home. Israel has given Hamas 11 different terms of negotiations including military pauses, trading captives for convicted Palestinian prisoners (and has released 180 in jail for capital crimes since October 7), and has increased aid into Gaza. Hamas has always refused the deals. Flatly.

There will be no withdrawal as long as they continue to lob missiles into central Israel, which is still happening on a near daily basis, albeit with less frequency and intensity. When they wish to surrender completely to the IDF; when Hamas will give back all the hostages live and dead, then the war will be completely over. Not until then. Not when they want to commit the same atrocities and massacre over and over again.

So Biden unrolled his plan for complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. For Palestinians to move back into the Northern part of Gaza, where the IDF was just recently still uncovering terror tunnels shafts, rocket launchers next to schools, and arms caches inside mosques. He unrolled his plan for the IDF to withdraw from Gaza as part of plan two….if Israel left in plan one, why was plan two including this? Nothing makes sense. And to trade Israelis held captives for the release of hundreds more terrorists to go back into Gaza. Yes. That insures the complete safety of Israel.

“… the temporary ceasefire would become, in the words of the Israeli proposal, ‘ the cessation of hostilities permanently.’” stated Biden. Hello? The Israeli proposal? What proposal? Sir, there was no such proposal! Phase three insures the return of the dead bodies held by the terrorists since 7 October in return for a complete reconstruction of Gaza. By who? At whose expense? On whose oversight?

Biden then went on in his speech to take a jab at our right-fielded Knesset members who “want to keep fighting for years and hostages are not a priority for them” Shame! He absolutely smeared BenGvir and Smotrich and other government members including Netanyahu. He is trying to divide and throw political dissent into our country, something Israel fell for last year, something that made Israel weak. He then went on to outright threaten the Israeli people with impending economic, military and social defeat if this plan was not supported.

In an unprecedented move, Prime Minister Netanyahu broke with Sabbath tradition and made a public speech. It was a defiant retort to the White House administration. He reiterated that Israel’s conditions for ending the war remain unchanged. Hamas must no longer be able to pose a threat to the state of Israel. Of course, Hamas praised the ‘deal’ and accepted the terms of Israeli withdrawal, permanent ceasefire and increased aid and reparation packages.

So, do you see, that by Hamas accepting and Israel rejecting a plan forward (that they never even saw), makes Israel the bad guy? The international community will pipe up in the coming days: Israel won’t stop fighting. Israel won’t play fair. Israel just won’t give up. Israel just wants genocide. All eyes on Rafah – and away from Biden’s dropping poll numbers.

And of course, the literal backstory… Former President Obama is fully on board with and backs Biden’s (oooooopsy…I thought it was Israel’s) plan to go forward.

That’s all I have to say, except that all day we’ve been getting red alerts. Bombs on the Golan, rockets fired at Akko, Rosh HaNikra, Nahariyya, Shavei Tsiyon, Achziv – all prime tourist destinations for their natural beauty, stunning coastline, historical sites, or great nightlife. I just received news (another paid article I do yearly: to cover the summer festivals in Israel) that the Tsfat Music Fest, Eilat Jazz festival, Karmi’el Dance Festival are all cancelled due to the war and due to large crowds not being allowed. I am to be updated on the Tel Aviv White Nights, summer concert series in different locations, and other annual citywide extravaganzas. Add to that, our favorite summer haunts are shut down because – you know – the war.