Israel Matzav

Comrade Peretz Visits Sderot

Comrade Peretz visited his home town of Sderot this morning, just a day after a Kassam rocket hit a classroom that was fortunately empty at the time. Comrade Peretz backtracked from his promise to armor all of the Gaza perimeter schools before the beginning of the next school year telling Sdeort Mayor Eli Moyal and additional regional council heads, that “the likelihood that we’ll finish all protection work by September – the beginning of next school year – seems to be a complete fantasy.”

In case any of you have forgotten, until a couple of years ago, there was no such thing as a 'Gaza perimeter' and since the withdrawal expulsion of the Jews from Gaza in August 2005, the 'Gaza perimeter' has expanded and Kassam and Katyusha strikes have become much more frequent.

YNet reports on Comrade Peretz's visit:

Many residents, parents and teachers, appealed to Peretz to solve the situation and “give them their lives back.” Amit Orenbuch, a teacher at the school hit by a rocket Sunday, apparently delayed students at morning prayer for two additional minutes – which saved them from being in the classroom when the Qassam fell through the roof. Orenbuch told Peretz: “We had a great miracle here and this was due to prayer. This is the message we want to communicate – the two minutes yesterday weren’t by chance. With that, we expect a response. We ask and demand that this won’t happen again.”

Chairman of the school’s parents committee Sophie Ben Shushan asked Peretz, “How can it be that for eight months nothing has been done? My children won’t be abandoned. Everyone here is in trauma. The schools need to be protected.”

Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal, however, said that the solution is not in protecting the schools but in pursuing the Qassam launching cells. Following the meeting with Peretz, Moyal said Monday, “The public is sick of this situation and the solution isn’t in protection. We need to fight the main factor which is terrorism, and that is on the other side. The government isn’t dealing with it properly, they shouldn’t have pity. We don’t want a concrete dome over all of Sderot.”

Of course, for the schools to be fortified, additional budget moneys will have to be found, and that will be yet another expense of the Gaza expulsion that should have been thought of before it happened. But Moyal is really correct: the only solution is re-occupation and de-Nazification of the Gaza Strip. Let's admit it folks: the Gaza expulsion and surrender was a mistake. Just like the right said all along.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:59 AM