June 15th, '06
Kassam Warfare and Kids

Today, an editorial in Yediot Achronot, Israel's largest circulation newspaper, proposed evacuating all children from Sderot, a medium-sized Israeli city just east of the Gaza strip that has been repeatedly attacked by Kassam missiles. This was in response to a statement by Education Minister Yuli Tamir, who said that such a move would not give "the right message."

Are photographs of babies shaking with fear the type of civilian determination [Education Minister] Tamir feels is praiseworthy? Will these images convince those firing the Qassams to stop? Why must children pay the price for the total inability of their government – both previous and current – to fulfill the most basic of their duties: Basic protection for civilians?

Frightened children are not meant to be ducks in a firing range, whatever the policies of the present government may be. Children should not be part of the messy ideological discussions surrounding the current stage of our conflict with the Palestinians. They are also supposed to be protected from empty promises about reinforced defense shields that are "on the way" (just when, exactly?) or some fantastic summer camp that will take their minds off it all. At least until the next siren goes off, that is.

Read the entire editorial here.

I wonder how much the average reader outside of Israel knows about the constant missile pounding Israel has been taking from the recently-evacuated Gaza strip? Debka file has a sobering round-up:

One Israeli seriously injured by a Qassam missile fired from Gaza into Ahkelon’s industrial zone. A factory roof caved in. Three more hit Sderot. A fifth, Kibbutz Ibim just north of Sderot. June 15, 2006, 1:54 PM (GMT+02:00)

One landed near the hunger strikers’ tent outside the Sderot home of defense minister Amir Peretz. Two women fainted. Later, a Qassam landed harmlessly near Zikim and two fell near Ashkelon. The Sderot protesters start their fourth day’s hunger strike against the government’s failure to halt the Palestinian missile offensive paralyzing their town.

A Qassam missile landed in the big Ashkelon power station yard Wednesday. It was launched from Gaza.Jihad Islami claimed the attack. A direct hit on the installation would have caused a national outage. Jihad Islami claimed the attack. A direct hit on the installation would have caused a national outage. Sderot schools are shut for the fifth day. The blitz intensified tenfold after the ruling Hamas vowed to turn Sderot into a ghost town. Saturday and Sunday, an unprecedented 100 missiles were fired in two days at Sderot and its environs.

What would a normal country do?

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