Humanizing Hamas: An NYTimes objective gone wrong
The New York Times recently published an interview with Hamas's political chief, Khaled Mashal, entitled Addressing US, Hamas Says It Grounded Rockets. In the interview, the Times takes a very sympathetic approach to Hamas leader, who was just elected to his fourth term as Hamas's political bureau chief, the post he has held since 2004. The Times attempts to portray a new more "moderate" Mashal, in the hopes that Hamas is actually turning a new leaf. In the article, The Times quotes Mashal as asking Americans to disregard the Hamas charter, (steeped in anti-Semitic declarations), while also stating that Iran does "not control or affect Hamas policies." The Times also quotes Mashal saying that Hamas has no interest in bringing strict Muslim law into Gaza. 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. No plans to leave Ashkelon
The writer came to Ashkelon from Brooklyn, NY in 1976 and teaches at Achva Academic College (students who are studying to be English teachers) and at Ashkelon College. She also freelances for the Metro section of The Jerusalem Post. She and her former paratrooper husband have three children; one who lives out of range of grads and one who lives in Ashkelon but is staying with friends in Tel Aviv. He's in his 3rd year at Sapir College in Sderot so is really getting a double whammy. Their daughter lives here in Ashkelon and works in Kiryat Malachi. December 31st. Wednesday, 11:05 It was a rather quiet night in Ashkelon but not a quiet morning. I was much calmer than the night before, maybe because my son gave me a physics lesson and I understand the projectory of one of these missiles. But then maybe not. The important thing is that I'm calmer, at least for now. We live across the street from the sea and about 3 minutes before Gaza air space. The rainy morning skies are filled with air traffic, something we haven't seen from this vantage point. Sometimes, the wind sounds like the beginning of a siren and we jump. We hear "booms" from Navy ships and sometimes don't know if it's a missile or one of ours shooting at them. This too is a bit scary. Why the ceasefire never stood a chance
Back in January 2008, the German newspaper, Der Spiegel published an article covering the Kassam rocket production in Gaza. Ulrike Putz, the author of the article interviewed several Palestinians in the midst of building rockets and stirring away explosives. One Palestinian, Abdul, explained that building rockets for the Palestinian terror network, Islamic Jihad is his night job, while during the day he studies geography. Abdul, 22 at the time of the article, began producing rockets for Palestinian Islamic Jihad when he 19. I believe that the article offers significant insight into why the recent ceasefire with Hamas which began on June 21, and has completely disintegrated since early November, never stood the chance of lasting in the first place. Psychological trauma increasing among Sderot residents
"Rockets scare me," says Niv Chen, an 8-year old elementary school student who goes to school in Sderot. As Niv gets into the car, on his way to school, he asks his older brother, Eliran, to lower the car windows, so that he can hear the Tzeva Adom. The Tzeva Adom, or Red Color alert is the siren that warns Sderot residents of impending Palestinian rockets and allows residents 15 seconds to escape to shelter. Niv and countless other children in Sderot have been living with Palestinian rocket fire for almost 8 years. Many have trouble concentrating in school and suffer from anxiety attacks. Breaking the calm during Passover
It seemed that Sderot residents were going to experience a rare day of quiet on Tuesday, April 22. Around eveningtime at 19:30 pm, however, two Kassams fired from northern Gaza, broke the calm. One rocket hit a Sderot home, damaging the building and sending several people into shock. The owners of the home, Michael and Evgenia Zaretskay, who immigrated from Belarus 17 years ago, were downstairs when the rocket hit. "I was upstairs when the second siren of the evening went off," says Evgenia. "My husband told me to come down immediately. I went down and seconds later we heard the awful explosion. I knew our home had been hit." Welcome to the real world of Sderot, Jimmy Carter
A few eyebrows went up when Jimmy Carter visited Sderot yesterday on Tuesday April 15. Sderot residents were relatively bewildered with Carter's visit to the rocket-shelled city, in light of his planned visit with the Palestinian terror organization, Hamas and its exiled leader Khaled Mashaal in Syria, later in the week. "Today Carter comes to visit the city that Hamas terrorizes with rockets and later he will speak to the Hamas leaders who advocate this rocket fire," said one Sderot onlooker as Carter arrived with his security personnel into the city. "His visit to Sderot doesn't make any sense." In fact, many of the residents in Sderot felt that the entire Carter visit was a joke on the residents. Church Group visits Sderot
Members of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), a program of the World Council of Churches, based in Geneva , visited Sderot this past Sunday, March 30. "This is our first visit to Sderot," said Valentina Maggiulli, the Jerusalem local program coordinator for EAPPI. "We know the situation in the West Bank and Gaza very well. We felt it was important to see the situation in Sderot as well." EAPPI has church personnel stationed in Hebron , Yanoun, Tulkarem, Jerusalem , Jayyous and Bethlehem . Personnel come from countries all over Europe to help negotiate resolutions and facilitate peace activities in strategic locations. McCain in Sderot
On a quiet Wednesday afternoon, a helicopter landed in Sderot with two US senators on board. Republican presidential nominee, John McCain and US senator Joseph Lieberman, who toured Israel for two days, made time to stop by this rocket-battered town in the western Negev. They were received with the typical small-town warmth. "We are happy that they have come. They were brave to come," said one Sderot mother of the American visitors. She stops to watch the security vehicles and black sedans race by as McCain and Leiberman, accompanied by Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak rush to visit the Amar family whose home was hit by a rocket three months before. Small-town girl in Kassam CityI come from Maine, which is considered rather unusual among most American olim. I suppose it is even more unusual that I've chosen to live part-time in Sderot this year. I arrived in Sderot four months ago to begin an internship in the Sderot Media Center. As a native English speaker, I translate, edit, write articles, and work as an international coordinator and correspondent. The most abnormal part of this job is living with the daily red alerts and the Kassam rocket attacks. I already have a foray of images etched into my mind of the people in Sderot and their struggles to live through this Kassam rocket reality: an elderly woman trembling violently, a baby crying, a group of children huddling together for safety, as the police search for the Kassam rocket in the dark of night--these are moments that make you wonder how people learn to live with fear.
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