Israel Matzav

Mida k'Neged Mida A Measure for a Measure

Part of Jewish tradition is that God's punishments to us are always measured and appropriate to the crime involved. While humans don't always succeed in having the punishment fit the crime, we too are commanded to do our best to emulate God's ways. The IDF succeeded in coming close to doing that last night (at least in part), although whether it will continue to do so in the future is less clear.

As I reported yesterday, for the first time, a Kassam rocket slammed into the center of Ashkelon, hitting near an ORT school in the city. We were all told that the school was unoccupied at the time, but my friend Harvey in Efrat emailed me later last night to tell me that the school was actually not unoccupied at the time - that parents were in the school building to register their children for seventh grade.

Last night, the IAF struck the Hamas-run internal ministry in the Southern Gaza Strip and a school in the Northern Gaza Strip. But this school is a dual purpose building. By day, it serves as a school, while at night it serves as a gathering place for terrorists. Of course, this is in the finest tradition of 'Palestinian' violations of the Geneva Convention, by attempting to shield terrorist activity behind civilians, giving the 'Palestinians' a way of claiming that the Air Force is bombing schools.

Five people were injured at the internal ministry; no one was injured at the 'school.'

Just to fill you in, this is part of the JPost's account of last night's 'Palestinian' rocket attack:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert termed the Kassam attack a "grave escalation" for which Hamas is responsible and for which there will be far-reaching ramifications.

Olmert's comments came at the annual July 4th celebration held at the residency of the US ambassador to Israel in Herzliya Pituach.

"Tonight a grave escalation took place when a Kassam landed in a school in our southern town. This is a peerless and grave escalation in the terrorist war for which Hamas, which is in control of the Palestinian government, is responsible," Olmert said.

He said there will be significant ramifications for this "criminal attempt" to strike at Israeli citizens. He said Hamas would be the first to be hit.

In response to the attack, Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered the IDF to step up the speed and intensity of Operation Summer Rains in the Gaza Strip, launched last Wednesday in an effort to retrieve Cpl. Gilad Shalit. "We intend to achieve the goals of our operations in Gaza," Peretz said, referring to stopping the Kassam rocket fire as well as retrieving the kidnapped IDF soldier.

No one was wounded by the rocket, which landed in a playground of a school in the heart of the Ashkelon residential area. Children playing soccer outside the ORT-Ronson High School on Rehov Ben Zvi were thrown back by the force of the explosion, witnesses reported, but were unharmed. The school suffered some damage. Earlier in the day, four rockets landed in the western Negev without causing any injuries.

Security officials described the Kassam as "upgraded," although featuring only one engine. Southern Police chief Cmdr. Uri Bar-Lev said security forces had seen this type of rocket in the past and called on the residents of Ashkelon to remain calm and to carry on their lives as usual.

Hamas' military wing, Izzadin al-Kassam, claimed responsibility for the attack while claiming that the rocket had been upgraded to achieve a range of over 15 kilometers. Security officials said the rocket was fired from an open area between the former northern Gaza settlements of Nisanit and Dugit.

In the past, Kassams have landed in Ashkelon's periphery, particularly in the industrial zone. But in contrast to Sderot, Ashkelon is not equipped with the Red Dawn early warning system which alerts residents [about 45 seconds in advance. CiJ] of an incoming rocket.

It's obvious that this is being treated as different from Sderot and you all should be asking yourself why. There are a number of points worth emphasizing here, some of which are legitimate, and others of which show a rather ugly side of Israeli society:

1. This Kassam went further than previous Kassams have gone, which means that the number of targets that may be hit from Gaza has increased accordingly.

2. The 'Palestinians' used an open area between two former Jewish towns in Gaza - Nisanit and Dugit - showing once again the utter failure of the Sharon - Olmert appeasement policy and once again warning Israelis that we would be out of our minds to go along with Olmert's convergence consolidation realignment surrender and expulsion plan for the Jews of Judea and Samaria.

3. Ashkelon has no early warning system. The cost of installing an early warning system in Ashkelon and in other areas now within range of the 'Palestinian' Kassams is significant. So is the cost of protecting public buildings and schools in Ashkelon and in other new target areas. The government has still not completed protecting those buildings in Sderot, and as I have noted in the past, they will not complete the protection before school starts in September.

4. Here's the ugly part: Sderot is poor and Sfardi (Jews from Arab countries, although it also includes a substantial number of Russian immigrants) and traditional/religious. Ashkelon is not as poor and Ashkenazi (Jews from European countries - mostly people who have been in Israel for many years) and mostly secular. It's still NotInMyBackYard to the denizens of Ramat Aviv. But it's getting closer. The people of Ashkelon are people with whom the typical Ashkenazi Israeli has a lot in common. They may even be Labor or Kadima Achora voters (as opposed to Sderot, which has been a right wing and Likud stronghold for years). The race card is still a big playing card in Israel. Those of us who live here all know it.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:39 AM