OMG - the Israelis are killing fields

Since Hamas has undertaken the responsibility for firing rockets at Sderot the general aim has improved. Amir Peretz, the Israeli Defense Minister, immediate neighbor’s house has been hit reports Ha’aretz:

A Qassam rocket struck a home next to the Sderot residence of Defense Minister Amir Peretz early on Wednesday, causing damage but no injuries. Peretz was not at home at the time of the attack, part of a barrage of Palestinian rockets that also hit a basketball court in the town Wednesday morning.

The defense minister blamed Hamas for the attack, maintaining they are "trying to cover up the murderous act of their men against Fatah militants." Peretz, who was touring an IDF exercise in the north, called the rocket firing "intolerable and will reap a response." He reiterated that "Israel has no intention to intervene with the internal clashes in [Gaza] Strip, but we are not going to tolerate that these clashes will impact the security of Israeli residents; these events will reap a suitable response." IAF helicopters attacked in response to the rocket barrage open fields in the northern Gaza Strip where Qassam rockets are suspected to be launched from.

I can’t decide if the recent targeting of open fields in the northern Gaza Strip is Israeli Defense minister’s idea of showing support for the Gazan agricultural system or not. Certainly, it has done less than nothing to stem the tide of kassams attacks launched by Hamas.

While the Kadima government continues to fire into open and fields and threatens to bluster some more, the citizens of Sderot remain under siege. So much for not allowing the slaughter in Gaza to have an impact on Israeli security. Meanwhile there are two citizen initiatives are currently on the go in Sderot. Taken from Ynet News:

Tuesday night's Qassam barrage was too much even for Sderot's most experienced residents, and they decided to appeal to "the nation's savior" - Arkadi Gaydamak. Batia Cattar, Chairwoman of the Sderot PTA (Parents-Teachers Association) said that numerous appeals from the city's residents resulted in the letter she wrote Gaydamak. I appeal to you on behalf of the residents of Sderot, requesting you help us evacuate the city, as you did last summer," she wrote. "We have no choice. Life here has become a game of Russian roulette, rockets are fired constantly and many are injured. "The prime minister and the defense minister have left us on our own, bleeding in the battlefield."

Gaydamak helped Sderot's residents last summer, by sending many of them to a weekend away, in Eilat. Cattar told Ynet that many in the city are desperate to leave, and frustrated the government has no consideration for them. "How many more must die? We are sitting ducks and the government does nothing about it. If something like this were happening in central Israel, they wouldn't just be standing there. Our blood," she added "is no different."

Imagine having to sue the government to send in the army to defend you but that is exactly what lies at the heart in the second citizen initiative. This Ynet News carries the details:

A group of residents from the battered town of Sderot have decided on a unique course of action against the unremitting rocket fire directed at their homes from Gaza, announcing they would petition the High Court to force Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to instruct the army to respond. The initiative is credited to Sderot resident Avi Farhan – who was evacuated from the settlements of Yamit and Elei Sinai when Israel pulled out of the Sinai Desert in Egypt and the Gaza Strip, in 1981 and 2005 respectively.

Ironically, there have been no international rallying cries of “war crimes” for the deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians by Hamas nor is anyone even remotely suggesting dragging the Hamas leadership to answer to charges of war crimes in the Hague. Funny how all these human rights organizations became willfully deaf when the victims are Jewish civilians.