Iran, Hamas and Obama

As US President Barack Obama makes historic overtures in attempting to foster open dialogue with Iran, the rest of world watches in optimistic anticipation. The UK's Guardian recently reported that Obama's administration drafted a letter to Iran "aimed at unfreezing US-Iranian relations and opening the way for face-to-face talks."

Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has welcomed US overtures saying that:

The new US administration announced that it's willing to bring about a number of changes and is now taking the course for dialogue. It's quite clear that the real change should be fundamental, not just tactical change, and it is quite clear that the Iranian nation will greet real changes." (CNN, February 10)

Change or no change, residents of southern and northern Israel have reason to be wary of Iran, a country that continues to fund Hamas and Hizbullah terrorism operations.

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Human Rights for Sderot residents

Liraz Madmony, 23 of Sderot, grew up under Palestinian rocket fire. Although a rocket has never directly hit her home, Liraz has experienced the terror of rocket explosions countless times over the past eight years. "We don't have a bomb shelter in our house," she says. "Every time, the Tzeva Adom is set off, our family races to the shower, the only room that is most 'secure' from a rocket attack."

Liraz, a law student in a Ramat Gan college in central Israel, is heavily involved with student organizations such as WUJS (World Union of Jewish Students). "Many times I've missed my law classes and student activities because of the rocket attacks. It's almost impossible to lead a normal life when you are forced to live under with warning alerts and raining rockets."

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Life is finally back to normal...BOOM

Shalom from Sderot!

Thank G-d for the army and its soldiers for helping them succeed in their amazing operation in Gaza.

Thank G-d for our amazing nation, Israel!  All the good and kindness that was sent our way over the past years and especially during Operation Cast lead just remind us how lucky we are.

Thank G-d that today's kassam (Sderot/Sha'ar Hanegev area) and yesterday's Kassam (Eshkol area - further south) fell in open areas and no one was hurt, no damage incurred.

Defining war crimes

Type in 'war crimes' in Google and you get both the Wikpedia definition and examples of countries associated with the term including Japan, US, and...Israel.

The coupling of 'war crime' and Israel is not new, and indeed much of the international media and foreign leadership favors using the term to describe Israel's current offensive operations in the Gaza Strip.

The Wall Street Journal on January 10, published an article entitled "Israel is Committing War Crimes" by George Bisharat. Bisharat writes that "Israel's current assault on the Gaza Strip cannot be justified by self-defense. Rather, it involves serious violations of international law, including war crimes."

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Hamas' blaze of glory

Things have calmed down here in Ashkelon..."only" 3 grads on Wednesday and 3 or 4 the day before.  One fell where I teach but didn't explode and it took about an hour to get it out of the earth (and about 45 minutes just to find where it had landed in the first place). 

Another miracle since there were people in school...albeit on a much smaller scale.

We hear the continuous "thumping" of Israel artillery, day and night, either from the navy in the sea or from the canons on land and I can  tell the difference. And yesterday we saw the smoke billowing out of Gaza skies. We must have hit something big.

Acts of kindness in Sderot

It's unbelievable how much kindness we've been showered with on an almost daily basis over the past 8 years. Sometimes we say "Enough!" - but we definitely feel loved.
 
Living with an almost daily barrage of kassam missiles is not easy, but all the kindness we received showed us "You're not forgotten. Even though the gov't isn't doing anything (until now), we care and remember you!"

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Averaging one grad per hour

There we were, a sunny Monday morning, averaging maybe one grad per hour from about 10:30 am when once again, the siren wailed. We ran downstairs under a hallway in my mother-in-law's house. My neice and one of my sons were with her and just as we got to the hall, this enormous "BOOM!" shook the house. 

"It's here!" my son and husband yelled together. "Nobody move!" We waited for less than a minute (although you have to wait 5 but we couldn't) and ran outside, noticing that the window over the kitchen sink had a huge hole in it and what was left was all cracked. Smoke was coming from the houses across the street and at first, we thought it was there. Then we thought it had landed around our friends' house behind those houses and knowing Miki was alone and on the hysterical side, ran over to her house. 

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The soldiers are all my sons

I just came back from a 2 day "vacation" in Rishon, out of rocket range. It was very strange: kids going to school, people walking along the streets, stopping to look in shop windows, no one in a hurry...simple, everyday occurrences which have come to a complete stop here in Ashkelon (and in the other areas in rocket range) and which I will never take for granted again.

Sadly, we lost one of our soldiers yesterday, and when I use the pronoun "our", I mean "our". Israel may be the only country in the world that puts a picture of the soldier(s) killed on the front page with a brief bio in the 2nd-3rd page of the newspapers. The TV, radio and print media also announce when and where the funeral will be held, because in a country as small as ours, everyone knows someone in the army and someone always knows someone who knows someone who knows the deceased. Also, because we are so small, we  really are one family; strangers will go out of their way to go to the funerals, and everyone weeps, some outwardly, but all of us in our hearts.

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The impact of Palestinian rocket terror on Israeli children

There have been many questions bouncing around in the media this week. Why is Israel at war? Why are there so many Hamas men dead? Why are Hamas firing rockets at Israel? A war of resistance, some say. Israel is holding a siege against Gaza. Palestinians are starving and suffering.

And who is to blame?

Israel of course. At least that is the conclusion that emerges within the headlines of AP and Reuters news reports, European news media, and countless Internet blogs on the current fighting.

For those who seek objective answers to those questions, the unfolding tragedy of Sderot and the western Negev must be taken into account.

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The people of Sderot have mind-boggling resilience

January 1st 11:00

The sun is shining but the streets are still empty, even though there've been no sirens here since noon yesterday when four rockets hit Ashkelon. Don't hear the Navy's cannons today and don't see drones flying overhead like we did all yesterday along with helicopters and Air Force planes.

Would really love to take a walk in the sun and get out of the house but no way.  Even when I take the dogs out behind the house for a few minutes, I get somewhat stressed thinking, "This is a good  time for a grad." How have the people of Sderot and the area lived like this for 8 years?!!? It boggles the mind, now that I know firsthand what they've been going through.

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