Israel Matzav

Would the last one out of Sderot please turn off the lights?

The Jerusalem Post reports this morning that some 3000 of Sderot's 22,000 residents left the town for safer areas over the summer. The reason for their leaving was the barrage of Kassam attacks and the desire for their children to start the new school year elsewhere.

Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal revealed that many of those who left were from a medium to high economic level. "They are the families that were the fuel, the power and the engine that were driving Sderot forward. These are the people who opened businesses, employed people and raised their living standards - most of them have now disappeared. It is a tremendous blow to the town, also because of the harm to the Interior Ministry budget."

Sderot Municipality workers said that from conversations with families that have left the town, it emerged that most had set up new homes in Ashkelon, Ashdod and Rishon Lezion - further away for the threat of Kassam attacks.

Streets lined with villas are gradually emptying because most residents know that the chances of a Kassam falling on their house is higher than their chances of selling the property, Yediot reported.

Those still living in Sderot have to be wondering why they are still there. With Kassams still falling daily (I don't usually report them anymore, but they are still falling), defense minister Ehud Barak told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee today that now is not the time for an invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Barak has been saying for weeks that it is only a matter of time before the Israel Defense Forces invades Gaza to halt a continuing wave of Palestinian rocket attacks. However, with Israel and the Palestinians preparing for a U.S.-hosted peace conference in the coming weeks, Barak told lawmakers that now is not the time for widespread military action in Gaza.

"It's not the right time for an operation in Gaza," Barak told lawmakers, according to committee member MK Limor Livnat (Likud). She said Barak hinted that he did not want to jeopardize the peace conference.

Barak is either a liar or a fool.

He also said that Israel Defense Forces actions in Gaza - including airstrikes, brief ground incursions and financial sanctions - have been effective in curbing the rocket fire, Livnat said.

Just this past Thursday a barrage of 9-13 Kassams hit Sderot. That sounds like a real curb in Kassam fire, doesn't it? I vote for him being a liar.

Not only has Barak called off the invasion, he doesn't even want to know who's shooting the Kassams.

Israel holds the Hamas militant group, which controls Gaza, responsible for the rocket attacks, which have killed seven people in recent years and disrupt life in western Negev towns on a daily basis.

Hamas has mostly held its fire since they took over the Gaza Strip in June. The rockets are being shot partly by Islamic Jihad and mostly by 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen's Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Abu Mazen is even paying the Kassam shooters' salaries with American cash and with Israel's approval.

But Ehud Barach (Ehud fled) is too busy helping his boss Ehud K. Olmert plan to give the country away to Abu Mazen to worry about things like invading Gaza. I wonder if there will be any Jews left in Sderot when the two Ehuds return from Annapolis.

Would the last one out, please turn off the lights?

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:30 PM