Israel Matzav

Sderot - the morning after

It's the morning after in Sderot - except it isn't really the morning after because the attack isn't over. Two more Kassams have already fallen this morning (8:00 AM). No reports of injuries or damage yet. Hamas has taken 'credit.'

The Kassams are a daily event in Sderot, and not surprisingly, the people of Sderot are fed up. It's like playing Russian roulette every day:

Sderot is a working class town on the border with Gaza, with many immigrants struggling to break even at the end of the month. Every time they venture out of the house, residents know a piece of metal with some explosives attached to it could fall on them from the sky.

Yelena Moshari, a kindergarten teacher, said her nine-year old daughter becomes frightened after hearing the rocket alert. "She quickly runs to me, shaking. She doesn't want to go to school. She is always asking me to move, but we have gotten used to it here. It's hard to leave," Moshari says.

"It really makes me angry, that our children have to be scared in the morning. Instead of a 'good morning' at the start of the day, we get a rocket alert," she added.

"I go out in the street, and I wonder, if a Qassam lands, what do I do?" said her colleague, Mira. "I'm supposed to take cover, but where?" She exclaimed, adding: "You really can't get used to this."

"It's terrible fear, but when you see the others go about their daily business, you also go on. It's like Russian roulette. You don't know where it's going to hit," Moshari said.

What's it like when a Kassam hits? Mechi Fendel, an American immigrant who blogs from Sderot describes it:

Life and Kassams have been progressing as usual. Last week, on Thursday, my kids and I were sitting in the kitchen having dinner. There was a tremendous boom – the whole house shook and the kids jumped up. A Kassam missile fell without the usual warning siren. It hit a house around the corner from us. The mother and kids, who, similar to us, were sitting and having supper in the kitchen, were shaken up, thrown out of their chairs and sustained minor wounds from shrapnel. The actual Kassam missile buried itself in their garden. The wooden structure built to shade their driveway was all burnt down, the side of their house was all blackened, and the metal bars meant to prevent robbers from entering through the windows were all bent from the force of the shrapnel. (Those metal bars could very well have protected them from much more damage in the house!) The mother and kids were taken immediately to the hospital where they spent the weekend. They are now living in a hotel while their house is being fixed up.

This week a Kassam fell right outside my husband's caravan office in the Yeshivat Hesder. The miracle is that the Kassam didn't explode. It damaged the pavement and left a lot of smoke in the area. If it would've exploded, the shrapnel would easily have penetrated the office buildings (all flimsy caravans) and caused much damage.

Parents are trying to evacuate their children from Sderot and have shut down the schools today. If they leave, the borders move up. And the people in Sderot may not be as stubborn as the Jews of Gaza, who withstood five years of missile attacks until Ariel Sharon sent the army in to expel them.

Meanwhile, Ehud K. Olmert hobnobbed with Arnold Schwarzenegger in Los Angeles (is Arnold going to teach Ehud to lift weights or speak English?) until about three hours ago. Olmert and Peretz wring their hands and make empty threats to exact revenge and to target Hamas leaders. As if they have the guts to do what needs to be done. So far, Olmert and Peretz and their gang have shown themselves to the most cowardly 'leadership' this country has ever had.

And then there are the moonbats to whom Olmert panders - like his moonbat wife and children. Some ofAliza Olmert's moonbat friends have been putting ads in Haaretz, Israel's Hebrew Palestinian daily. Ads like the one below. For the Hebrew impaired, the ad below is a mourning notice (YNet calls it an obituary, but it's not an obituary in the sense that many of my readers are used to seeing). It reads as follows:

"To the Atamha family of Beit Hanoun. I bow my head in shame and deep grief for your heavy loss. The sane Israeli public is invited to join these condolences." It is signed by one Edna Kovarski of Herzliya. She paid NIS 2800 ($650) for the 'privilege':

Kovarski told Ynet that since the morning hours she has been receiving calls from Israelis who wish to publish similar obituaries in the newspaper. "I published it because of the great shame of what we do and for all the dead and injured." The family members of those who were killed, called Kovarski and thanked her for the gesture.

And she was not the first one. The first 'obituary' was published by one Moshe Simhovich of Jerusalem:

"I thought this was a war crime what happened in Beit Hanoun. It bothered me that innocent people got hurt. I decided to publish an obituary because I thought a letter to the editor will not get published," he said.

But it doesn't bother him or Kovarski that innocent Jews in Sderot have been getting hurt and killed every day for the last two years from Kassam fire. We don't see them taking out advertisements mourning the victims of Kassam attacks. We don't see them donating money to protect the Kindergartens of Sderot or to help these families who are living in bomb shelters every night. The moonbats could care less about our own.

Every day, I get comments and emails from readers and fellow bloggers wondering why Israelis don't rise up against this government, which has thrown our security to the wayside. Whom do you expect to rise up? Simhovich and Kovarski? Avigdor Lieberman, who sold his 'right wing' party into the government for a slice of bread? The Likud, which is so decimated by the elections that took place eight months ago that it's afraid to move unless it is sure that it will win?

The rot in this country is so deep and so systemic that it ought to take years to unwind when we don't even have months to wait. Go back and read Studies in Despair again. The two professors spoke the truth.

אין לנו על מי לסמך אלא על אבינו שבשמים. We have no one on whom to rely except our Father in Heaven. There is no other way out.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:09 AM