No More Sderots!
Thanks to the generosity of Eagles’ Wings Ministries’ Israel Experience program, I was able to finally take a dream trip to Israel, which included camel rides, sleeping in a Bedouin tent in the Negev Desert, meeting members of the Knesset and other government officials, and visiting all the high-profile places in the country, such as Jerusalem and now-Muslim Nazareth as well as Bethlehem and Efrat in the West Bank. As beautiful as those sites are, one location and its people stand out above all others: the brave citizens of Sderot, an Israeli town that borders on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Israel has been willing to exercise any option that doesn’t cause its destruction in an attempt for peace. When standing on the edge of Sderot and looking into the Gaza Strip, one can see the barren land where in 2005 the Israeli government forced peaceful Jewish settlers to leave behind their homes so they could be demolished in accordance with the demands of the Palestinians and international community, who failed to appreciate the economic contributions the settlement had made and could make in a tolerant, peaceful Palestinian state.
The Palestinians returned the favor by electing Hamas, who responded to this olive branch with rocket fire. Since the withdrawal from Gaza, over 7,000 rockets have been fired at Israel, including 226 since the end of Operation Cast Lead in January. Critics of the Israeli offensive into Gaza frequently state that the response was not proportional, as if not enough innocent Israelis had been killed to warrant retaliation aimed at preventing further casualties.
The focus on the relatively low number of Israeli casualties disguises the tremendous damage the rocket attacks caused, both to Palestinians and Israelis. The Palestinians need to direct their anger at Hamas’ aggression, which has resulted in unnecessary and regrettable suffering for them, and recognize that the terrorist organization is not the “liberation” force destined to save them. On the Israeli side, the psychological and economic damage is hard to comprehend.
You can be sure that if Nonie Darwish, Wafa Sultan, Walid Shoebat, et al., were in charge, those firing rockets would, at the very least, be made an example of.
If 80% of the South Syrian Arabs do not want to put Jews, Christians, and Muslims on an equal footing, they are part of the problem, and frankly are not in the least bit suited for peace talks.
What Mr. Mauro failed to say is Sderot is “stolen land” – period. Palestinians got thrown out and this is their only method of retaliation. There’s a war going on and Israel started it.
Next time it would be prudent to mention ALL OF THE FACTS.
Thank you.
If the palestinians are fighting for their stolen land shouldn’t they attack the UN instead ?
# 2 What a title “common sense” from your few and jumbled words it is clear that you have little or no common sense, even less knowledge and little to offer in intelligent discourse.
Before 1918 Sderot or the piece of desert dirt it was built upon belonged to the Turks for 500 years. There is no palestinian history recorded anywhere until about 1965, when the Arabs who had fought and lost in their attempt to destroy and eject the Jews of this region decided iot was a great idea to call themselves Palestinians.
I live next to a “Palestinian” Village called “Jissa”. the “palestinians” of Jissa are mostly blacK arabs who arrived in the holyland from Sudan in the 1920s to dry the swamps of the North Sharon region when the area was governed by the British. Are they indigenous????? depends who you ask.All I know statistically and factually is that Jerusalem (East and West) had a Jewish Majority from the first recorded Ottaman census in the early 19th century until the Jews were massacred and forced to flee East Jerusalem in 1948 and that the so called “Palestinian population increased by a massive 400 % while the area was under the control of the Jew hating and Arab loving British and while at the same time the Jew hating and Arab loving british limited jewish immigration into the British mandated area.
So “common sense” either you are an anti semitic purveyor of the ARAB NARRATIVE which also denies any connection between Jews historically and the holyland, if so you have your head somewhere it shouldnt be. Further the logical extension of the Arab Narrative is that Christianity is a con and never existed, because for it to have existed the jewish temple had to be in Jerusalem and Jesus and all of his extended family, freinds and their respective ancestors who as rumour has it were Jewish would also have had to have resided in the holyland including Jerusalem.
“Common Sense” you have the world beginning in a back street of cairo circa 1965 with some half shaven butcher called Arafat having a bright spark idea that would be easy to sell to the western Jew hating left wing emerging at that time.
” common sense, common sense, common sense……..yeah right.
dmgold, ^5!
Obama gave the Palestinians $900,000,000 to rebuild after the Israelis attacked to clean out the nest of vipers, but nothing for Sderot. This tells me everything I need to know.
#4 dmgold – Excellent, Dude! A most savory excoriation!
So, any pretense that the Oval Office wants to trot
out of it being even handed is as believable as the tooth fairy.
Marc Malone: It tells you everything you want to know. I mean, you are aware that the US gives Israel 3 billion a year, whether Sderot gets bombed or not. Idiot.
By the way, I know you people are pledged to non-factual theories of the world, but the US money to Palestinians goes through indirect channels, never directly to Palestinians. The contractors are usually American, and the money goes to projects directly approved by the aid agencies. By contrast, Israel is allowed to use its three billion dollar gift from the American taxpayer in any way it wants. It could build a hundred Sderots and locate them far from the edge of the war it shares responsibility for with Palestinians. Or spend it stimulating its tech sector.
Instead, with rare exceptions, American aid is provided indirectly through contractors and nonprofit groups that carry out a variety of projects, from building sewers and roads to mentoring Palestinian youths and fostering democratic institutions.
http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:CtRbnKdPNiUJ:articles.latimes.com/2006/feb/18/world/fg-aid18+%22palestinians%22+%22american+aid%22+%27american+contractors%22&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
# 8 Moho for someone who touts himself as the “fact man” you certainly shovel a lot of bull. Israel receives aprox 2.7 Billion in military aid from the US and is required by the US to spend the vast bulk of that money in the USA.
The US government defines what Israel can or cannot use the money for. Many here see it as a negative financial benefit as it not only means Israel opens itself up to US political pressures but has resulted in the transfer of 100,000+ jobs to the USA the closing of many Israeli military industries and the coerced purchasing of at times substandard and more expensive military equipment. The ineffective cluster bombs used by Israel in the 2006 Lebanon war were purchased from the US due to price even though their failure rate was significantly higher than the Israeli produced munitions.
As for Aid to the Palis no one knows where it really goes, Arafat eneded up with billions in his private bank account???? As i said Bull crap.
This is not about freedom fighting, but it more like a criminal enterprise. That includes PLO and HAMAS. Both organizations are corrupt, and neither serve the people in the west bank or gaza. Peace is not the end point, but he destruction of Israel is. The Palestinians have had so many concessions it should be clear that they have not given up on their goal. Anybody who is for Israeli genocide is less than human.
Good for you, dmgold.
I was going to respond to Moho with the truth about how Israel is requirede to spend the vast majority its US aid money in the US, but you beat me to it.
As for Moho’s claim that US aid to the Palestinians goes toward the “building of democratic institutions” – it’s just laughable. Has Moho heard about the decidedly non-democratic treatment of Fatah people by Hamas thugs? Or the recent reports that girls refusing to wear full Islamic garb in Gaza schools will be expelled? Does he really think that any Palestinian who has the guts to speak out against his leaders will live to tell the tale?
Common Sense: So by your logic, Germany should be firing rockets into western Poland – formally known as “Prussia” until the end of WWII when it was “stolen.”
After WWII, Poland had almost half its territory stolen by the USSR. They were compensated by receiving Eastern German territories but still ended up a 20% smaller country. Obviously they are constantly attacking their Russian neighbors.
Finland had to pay reparations and cede territory to the USSR for the crime of resisting a Soviet invasion so they ought to be shooting over the border.
The Japanese can go ahead and take potshots at civilians in the Kuril Islands, Pakistan is justified in supporting terrorists in Kashmir, Mexico can shoot up the Southwest U.S., and an American Indian should take your scalp and house.
Somebody with common sense would know that darn near every border in the world was decided by war at some point in history – get over it.
I know a fool who comments under the moniker commonsense (one word) on a different site. Like this fellow, he regards Israel as a land thief. Is it the same fellow? Who knows? Who cares? But, if someone says that Pakistan has the right to lob India with missiles, it will prick him some – he’s an Indian native.
I’ll leave those who wish to defend our right to rule in S’derot to those who feel they have to debate such things. I’m going to focus on a different issue. If the thieves and thugs who ru(i)n Israel from Government Hill in Jerusalem really cared about this country, instead of merely the “People’s Republic of Tel Aviv” – that area where the rich secular Ashkenazi Jews live on the coast – Gaza would have been pummeled to powder by now, and Guish Qatif would extend throughout the entire Strip, as it should. The Gazan Arabs would finally understand real refugee status – in tents all across the Sinai under the contemptuous eyes of hostile Egyptian soldiers – who would shoot to kill at the least provocation.
The real blame for S’derot and for its bombardment does not lie with the Arab terrorists who lob the rockets – it lies with the criminals in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem who refuse to murder the Arab terrorists off, and drive the Wahhabi influenced scum into the sea to drink sea-water, and into the Sinai, so they can bake and turn a nice shade of deathly brown-grey.
“the “building of democratic institutions””
Ha! I didn’t say that. If you’re right, you should be able to have a discussion on the merits. If right at the blocks, you’re already lying, then you’re in big trouble no matter where you’re from.
Old Soldier & Ruvy have the right of things.
There is no national border anywhere that was not decided by war at some time or another. The Israeli Government needs to flatten Gaza & the West Bank. A dead enemy is your enemy no longer.
Its ironic, that no other victorious nation in the last century has been forced by outside nations to cede lands won in war. The Soviets certainly didn’t willingly cede anything, and even now the Russians are reclaiming areas like Georgia.
Its all this leftist/liberal garbage people are being taught, they don’t even realize that they are sowing the seeds of their own destruction. Its also pretty sad that the selfish, spoiled, and ungrateful children of the EU nations have the gall to criticize Israel in defending itself. Personally I think the US should pull out of NATO and form alliances with nations that act like true allies. Let the EU pay for its own damn military protection rather than all these socialist programs they are so proud of, programs which they can “afford” due to US tax dollars and our protective umbrella.
And $3 billion in aid to Israel? Didn’t Obama and Congress just give 3 times that to ACORN in the Porkulus bill? Also I think there is a monetary provision of which ACORN is the beneficiary in all of his unpopular bills, Crap & Tax, ObamaCare, Card Check, and the “Fairness” Doctrine.
Common Sense;
The Arabs were hardly the only people to have land taken from them during the wars of the last century. Other people lost a lot more than they did. Borders got shifted around and land was passed to new parties. You need only to look at maps before and after the world wars. In all these cases the governments and polities realized that what was lost was unrecoverable and the best way to move forward was to make peace with the enemy, rather than continue irredentist claims that propagate an endless and self-destructive state of conflict. Nor do the governments, six decades later, demand a right of return for the second, third, and fourth generation descendants of refugees.
There comes a time when people must move on and acknowledge that perpetual war is not in their self interest.
Free Quark. There’s one problem with what you have presented as common sense. Unlike other situations that you describe, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza were not allowed to become citizens of Israel. Had they been able to, indeed, the problem would be a memory by now. But Israel had other issues on its mind, like maintaining their demographic “Jewish” structure. Something similar happened in S. Africa. Had the minority white government allowed Africans to live as full citizens of the nation, there never would have been an anti-apartheid movement, and the ethnic struggle there would be as dimly remembered as the Algerian and Tunisian experience. There is no way to make peace in an occupation, simply because an occupation is a transition–it is not meant to bring about peace or normalize, it’s end comes when the troops leave or when they annex the country and make the inhabitants citizens of the country. As I explained, Israel will do neither.
Thus, let’s assume, unrealistically, that Palestinians are even responsible for 70% of the blame. That still leaves Israel having failed to explore the options that you claim other peoples did to achieve peace. Think about it if you are able.
Moho;
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza were not allowed to become citizens of Israel
Neither were they allowed to become citizens of other Arab countries, where most of said ‘refugees’ dwell. This was not the case for the millions of displaced Europeans who were given, (along with their descendants) new lives in new places – not kept in ‘camps’ for generations for the purposes of propaganda.
Thus, let’s assume, unrealistically, that Palestinians are even responsible for 70% of the blame.
Time and time again, the Palestinians have been offered a deal that would see both sides have to compromise, but offer the chance for all to live in peace. Every time, the Palestinians have either rejected it or been negotiating in bad faith. They have preferred to try destroying Israel but have repeatedly failed.
The latest example? What happened in Gaza after the Israelis withdrew. The Palestinians smashed up the greenhouses left behind for their economic benefit, launched internecine warfare, and sent rockets into Israel in order to restart hostilities.
The violence of Palestinian resistance and the persistence of corrupt and thuggish leadership has led to many more Palestinian dead than Israeli; it has reduced their per capita income from nearly 25% of the Israeli average to less than 10%; it has resulted in years of misery and in them being further from their goals than at any time in the last 20 years. The campaign of suicide bombing has made them monsters and deeply warped Palestinian morality, while at the same time politically paralysing moderate Palestinian resistance.
In short, violent resistance has been a disaster for the Palestinian people, whereas a dignified, well-run non-violent resistance would gain them support from all over the world.
Moho (of culo-face fame) correctly notes that the State of Israel did not annex Sinai, Gaza, Judea and Samaria in 1967, as it should have. Let’s give him credit where credit is due.
“A brave man tastes death but once. Cowards die a thousand times.”
The Israeli government has consisted of cowards since 1967 when they won and liberated all of the Land of Israel. The largest share of blame for what is going on now lies on the cowards on Government Hill in Jerusalem. Their refusal to do what has been right has cost Israel thousands of lives since 1967, both in war and in terror attacks. Arab terrorists are murderous bastards – but they cannot be blamed for the cowardice of the Jews, and they cannot be blamed for accepting the money of the Europeans and American State Department – both infested with Jew-hatred.
Once we became conquerors in 1967, we lost the right to blame the goyim for persecuting us. When you are a conqueror, you have responsibilities. When foreign nations tolerate anti-Jewish terror, the foreign nations themselves must be made to pay – by US, the Jews.
When the Arab terrorists murdered off the Israeli Olympics Team in München in 1972, it was up to Israelis to exact vengeance on the ones who didn’t give a damn – the Germans. There should have been at least 25 dead Germans killed by Mossad terror in attacks so Germans would remember forever that Jewish blood does not come cheap. Since the kraut swine hate us anyway, why should we care if they die? They had no trouble murdering us off. The same should have occurred in Athens – so the Greeks would remember the same lesson.
Once you are a conqueror, it is your obligation to teach all the bastards on the planet who would allow Arabs to attack and kill you, that they will die – as well as Arabs murdered off in vengeance. Only then does the enemy respect you. Only when ouer enemies fear that Jews will kill them off and castrate their sons will they seek peace. Till then, our cowardice will keep us going to funerals.
It is time for us to stop whining (about S’derot, about bad press, about the American administration, etc., etc.,) and to start piling up the enemy dead in his tens of thousands so that they learn to fear the Jew as much as they hate him.