Israel Matzav

Still Life With Rockets

The Post had an article on their web site this afternoon which says it's a new blog. I don't have the URL yet, but I thought I would post the article anyway, because it's an interesting perspective. The writer is a 39-year old woman from New York who has been in Israel for twenty years - the last twelve in Sderot. Her husband is the Rosh Yeshiva of the Hesder Yeshiva there. She has six children:

We moved to Sderot as part of the Sha'alei Torah movement to strengthen development towns. My husband, David (formerly of West Hempstead, Long Island, NY) came to be the head of a learning academy (kollel), and I came along with our 4 children. When we came to live in the city, I took a group of NY-UJA representatives on a tour of the town. "We are the Kiryat Shmona of the Negev," I said. I meant that since Sderot is the closest city town to Gaza, we're similar to the city near the Lebanese border. Never, in my wildest nightmares, did I imagine that Sderot would start being bombarded like its Kiryat Shmona counterpart!!!

We came to Sderot with 3 other families to try to rehabilitate a development town strategically located in the Negev (1 hour from Tel-Aviv, 1 hour from Jerusalem, and 45 minutes from Be'er Sheva) but ignored by all Israeli governments. The educational and welfare systems were in bad shape and the people of the town were depressed.

...

For five years terrorists in Gaza have seen Sderot as an easy target - only 800 meters away (less than 1/2 a mile). We were promised that the disengagement from Gaza would allow the army to use stronger force in bombing Gaza and therefore in stopping the rockets. This did not happen. We are all frustrated and don't know to whom to turn. Most Sderot residents walk around depressed - "No one cares about us", "Nothing will help", "Where can we go?", "Where's our army? Who are they protecting - the Palestinians or the Israelis?"

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:41 PM