The People of Sderot Have Had It Up to Here
[As I am writing this post the radio is on in the background. Another Red Dawn warning is being broadcast in Sderot. My children are going out the door to school, not worried that they might be killed on the way. I can't say the same for those in the south.]
The people of Sderot have had it up to here with the empty promises of politicians. The IDF have refused to go in to Gaza in a major operation in response to the killing of Faina Slutzker yesterday by a Kassam rocket, so the parents have decided to strike the schools and are refusing to send their children this morning. (Read the article and weep - Peretz has even refused to continue the artillery fire. Fear of the world's reaction is stronger than fear of a Jewish woman or child being killed).
Most of the schools do not have the adequate protection they need from the rockets. The Red Dawn alarm system gives them at most a 20 second warning when a rocket falls. A kindergarden teacher asked on the radio this morning, "tell me, if I have a classroom of 30 tiny kids, how do I use those 20 seconds?" The parents union has turned to Arkady Gydamak (wealthy businessman) for financial help in evacuating the children from Sderot, even if it is just for a short vacation.
The whole situation is infuriating. When I made aliyah I didn't think I was moving to a country in which the leaders shrug their shoulders when their citizens are indiscriminately killed. The oft-heard excuse, very popular today, is that ground operations can't completely stop the rockets. I KNOW THAT. BUT IF YOU DON'T DO ANYTING THEN THE KASSAM ROCKETS CONTINUE FALLING ANYWAY. And, more importantly, the terrorists learn that you are weak and have lost your will to fight. Which leads them to continue killing. There is no choice in this part of the world between peace and war. There is a choice between small operations that reduce the power of the terrorists or large wars that do the same thing. Not acting at all is not a choice.
The people of Sderot have had it up to here with the empty promises of politicians. The IDF have refused to go in to Gaza in a major operation in response to the killing of Faina Slutzker yesterday by a Kassam rocket, so the parents have decided to strike the schools and are refusing to send their children this morning. (Read the article and weep - Peretz has even refused to continue the artillery fire. Fear of the world's reaction is stronger than fear of a Jewish woman or child being killed).
Most of the schools do not have the adequate protection they need from the rockets. The Red Dawn alarm system gives them at most a 20 second warning when a rocket falls. A kindergarden teacher asked on the radio this morning, "tell me, if I have a classroom of 30 tiny kids, how do I use those 20 seconds?" The parents union has turned to Arkady Gydamak (wealthy businessman) for financial help in evacuating the children from Sderot, even if it is just for a short vacation.
The whole situation is infuriating. When I made aliyah I didn't think I was moving to a country in which the leaders shrug their shoulders when their citizens are indiscriminately killed. The oft-heard excuse, very popular today, is that ground operations can't completely stop the rockets. I KNOW THAT. BUT IF YOU DON'T DO ANYTING THEN THE KASSAM ROCKETS CONTINUE FALLING ANYWAY. And, more importantly, the terrorists learn that you are weak and have lost your will to fight. Which leads them to continue killing. There is no choice in this part of the world between peace and war. There is a choice between small operations that reduce the power of the terrorists or large wars that do the same thing. Not acting at all is not a choice.
posted by westbankmama at 7:21 AM
5 Comments:
You're absolutely right. It's infuriating.
is there a solution to this situation other than sending the idf in? i don't think so. i totally agree, doing nothing solves nothing. the arabs don't understand "nice." (i don't care how i sound right now.) they understand bombs, violence, and things of that nature. sitting around and waiting for them to stop is ridiculous. it doesn't matter how nice we are, it won't help our cause. we need to go in there and raze gaza to the ground, once and for all, in the name of self-defense.
rr - it must be so frustrating to live in Sderot right now
bec - I don't think we can, or should, raze Gaza to the ground. I do believe that there are some Arabs living there who do not approve of terrorism - but they are too afraid to speak out. What we need to do is go in and control it - just like the IDF used to do (remember, the "occupation"?). Which means, realistically, that the world will condemn us, and which means, realistically, that our soldiers will be in danger from snipers, etc. At the same time, if it keeps our innocent civilians safe from Kassams then that is what we need to do. Last time I checked that was the responsibility of a government - to protect its citizens.
i should be better about remembering not to speak out in anger. on second thought, you're right, there are certainly good people in gaza who are not part of this mishegos, but sometimes it's hard to see that. if only they would stand up against these bombings as well, maybe that would help. at any rate, i'm extremely confused and saddened by the israel government's lack of an adequate response to the bombings. i always want to think that maybe there's something we don't know about and we have some secret something up our sleeves, but i think i lost faith in that after gush katif.
Does it make a difference now that we know the latest Kassam victim was identified as Fatima, a middle-aged Muslim immigrant? In fact, at least three of the nine people killed by Kassams over the past six years were non-Jews.
Wiping out Gaza is a non-starter. Oppression will only stoke defiance. Destroy the neighbors and we are destroying ourselves.
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