We left the trail today from Ein Yorkeam to head to Sderot. Sderot has become a rallying cry for Jews around the world who are disgusted by the inaction of the Israeli government in responding to seven years of rocket attacks on Israeli territory. 40,000 people are supposed to be living in Sderot but in practice only about 10,000 are present. Somewhere around 2/3rds of all children in Sderot have a form of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.
Since the Israeli disengagement from Gaza in the summer of 2005 Hamas has taken over the entire Strip, using former settlements, concentrated Arab civilian centers, and former "confidence building" joint Palestinian-Israeli water treatment plants to fire thousands of rockets into Sderot and the Western Negev. What was billed at the time as a measure to help solidify Israel's security situation has served as a tragic reminder yet again what can happen when concessions are heaped upon a group of people hell-bent on Israel's destruction.
We now have the absurd situation of Israel supplying fuel and electricity to the Gaza Strip which in turn gets used to fuel rockets that are fired back into Israeli territory. Even the people transporting these goods into Gaza are being attacked!
And yet Israel is once again accused of siege warfare and fomenting a humanitarian crisis when it is clear that Hamas is deliberately engineering the starvation of their own people for selfish gain. Classic "cut off your nose to spite your face" behavior we've seen over and over again.
Brandon is raising money for a charity in Sderot called Kids for Kids, and he arranged a visit to a local school to hand out teddy bears to the second grade children. Bradley did a great job of teaching them English songs and getting them involved in dancing and singing. Afterwards we bought some lunch downtown and spoke with many of the residents who said that they would gladly leave the city if there was anywhere to go. All in all a very rewarding, informative, and (thank God) quiet day 1 kilometer from the Gaza Strip.
As we took the bus back to Jerusalem for Shabbat we heard a siren which signaled the one-minute national silence for Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day. Everyone on the highway pulled over to the side of the road and stood by their cars. I couldn't help but make the parallel between this commemeration and what is going on in Sderot today. Never again will the Jewish people sit idly by while our own people are being murdered. We know too well how easy it is for the world to sit on their hands during genocide (see Darfur), so it's our responsibility to take any and all necessary action to defend ourselves.
-Jeremy
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