“A Gift for the Opening of the School Year”
This week, school started for the majority of children in Israel (my eldest actually started first grade last week).
The start of school is always a memorable occasion. The promise of a brand new year. New stationery. Blank notebooks. New teacher. New children to befriend.
For the children of Sderot, the start of the school year will be memorable, but for very different reasons.
Israel Defense Forces soldiers scrambled to evacuate babies from a day care center in rocket-scarred Sderot on Monday after a Qassam rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip thudded into its courtyard.
The rocket was one of seven to be fired from the Gaza Strip into the western Negev on Monday. The Islamic Jihad militant group claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks, calling them “a gift for the opening of the school year.’
Twelve Sderot residents, mostly children, suffered from shock after the strike on the southern town, and were evacuated to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon for treatment.
Frantic parents across the city – already furious over the government’s failure to protect them and their children from the near-daily rocket fire – reportedly pulled their children out of schools on the second day of the academic year, and said they would not send their children to school on Tuesday.
Natalie, a caretaker at the center, told Army Radio that “in the adjacent classroom, which was closer to the site of impact, they didn’t hear the alert until shattered glass fell on them. It’s a matter of seconds between the ‘Red Color’ alert and the moment of impact.”
“Some of the children were screaming and we are trying to calm them down. I also considered abandoning the city, I left for a month in the past. I’m still thinking of leaving. I have a child and I won’t let him experience this,” she continued.
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To calm jittery residents ahead of the school year, the military dispatched more than 200 soldiers to accompany students back to school in Sderot and instruct them on emergency procedures.
And this from Ynet:
Sderot residents told Ynet that the rockets fell while their kids were on their way to their schools and kindergartens. “When the alarm went off, the bus driver stopped near one of the fortified houses. He asked the girls to run and hide there,” a mother said.
“My daughter called me terrified and in hysterics. Now she has to start her school day in such a state. I still don’t understand why they decided to open the school year in Sderot. Our children are studying under Qassam fire,” she added.
Take a second and think of the depravity involved. These terrorists are deliberately trying to murder children. This in addition to deliberately placing their own children in harm’s way.
Update: You can support the people of Sderot here, or here.
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About the Author: An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.
There is an abominable document that is adhered to by military forces in the West today. It is the immoral “Just War Theory”, based on the St Augustine Christian doctrine. This is too adhered to by the supposedly Jewish, Israel Defense Forces.
Essentially it allows – and this is contained in international law – only “proportional” response and requires that defenders for example, risk and sacrifice their own lives under circumstances where the enemy is concerned. Moral equivalence is standard.
The result is the situation in Sderot, where the IDF stands by and effectively does nothing. Of course Israel also does not have any political leaders with courage these days, far more interested in being loved by the world and enriching themselves at the expense [lives] of Israelis.
If this is the best that can be done, do not be surprised when Iran is allowed to construct a nuclear bomb. Then it will be too late.
Western civilization is in jeopardy – and do not think that the unthinkable is impossible. People also thought that Germany could never become and do what it did in WW2.
This is a very Kafkaesque period as the West moves away from self defense to self sacrifice.
After blaming the terrorists, let’s not forget to mention the government of Israel, led by Olmert, Livni, Barak, Peres and the rest of traitors who are sitting back while this country gets destroyed bit by bit.
I usually blame President Bush for everything so this is his fault too.. I am so sorry your daughter is terrorized like that .. it too bad the world can’t be at peace