a rocket by any other name is still a rocket

Earlier in the week I read this little blurb from a Toronto Star article. The report had very little to do with kassams raining down on the Israeli city of Sderot per say and a whole lot to say about the plight of the Gazans but it struck me as a prime example of what’s terribly wrong about the Toronto Star’s reporting of this conflict.

Though the small, homemade rockets cause little damage and few serious casualties, thousands of Israeli communities around Gaza have been traumatized by the constant explosions.

(Photo: Amir Cohen, Ynet News)

I think the entire editorial board from the paper should go live in Sderot for the next month. A kassam landing in one’s home, school or business creates a great deal of damage. The full financial burden of Gaza’s kassam war on Sderot has brought a wreck of ruin to the economy of this blue collar Israeli city. Businesses are shutting down, everyone who can has already fled, but overall, these are poor Israelis with nowhere else to go.

Saturday night, two brothers were injured in a kassam attack doing nothing more nefarious than just walking on an Israeli sidewalk. One of the boys, an 8 year old, has had surgeon’s amputate part of his left leg, and even now a surgical team is struggling to save his crushed right leg from a similar fate. Apart from a hole in his chest and two injured lungs I suppose the Toronto Star thinks he is good to go. Here’s the Ynet News report of the incident:

VIDEO - Doctors at the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon were forced Sunday to amputate part of the left leg of eight-year-old Osher Tuito, who was seriously injured in a rocket attack on the southern town of Sderot on Saturday evening. The boy's right leg was also seriously hurt. He was anaesthetized and his situation was reportedly stable
(…)
Dr. Emil Chai, the hospital's deputy director-general, told Ynet, "When Osher arrived here, his leg was completely crushed. It was clear that we would probably have to amputate it. He underwent surgery during the night and we are trying to keep the second leg, but it's also in bad condition. "Apart from that, he has a hole in his chest and his lungs are inured. We still fear an infection and are constantly on the lookout. His brother Rami was also operated on tonight. Both his legs are plastered now and we presume that he will be transferred to the orthopedic ward in the coming hours."

Personally, I thought this was only a matter of time considering the Olmert government’s continued apathy towards the plight of Sderot’s civilians. Taken from the Jerusalem Post:

A new Facebook group is urging Sderot residents to use the Internet to learn how to build crude rockets, much like the Kassams launched at them from the Gaza Strip, and fire them back at the Palestinians. The group, which currently has 45members, posts material from the Internet on how to manufacture rockets.

Facebook, a social networking site that has taken the on-line world by storm, allows anyone to create groups and to invite people to join. The group's creators, Shai and Batya Messenberg from Petah Tikva, posted a description that reads: "It cannot be so difficult: If those retards from the Gaza Strip can do it then so can you." The description encourages residents of the town to trawl the Net for information on how to build ballistic missiles from materials found in the home. "I'm sure that very soon they [the Gazans] will get the message," the group's creator wrote.

I cannot decide, in the face of the Kadima ineptitude, whether to hope there are more than a few Jewish rocket scientists who will come to their aid or not. What I cannot understand is why the government has not allowed the IDF to target the homes of the leadership of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. This strikes me as a far more effective strategy. It is all very well to attempt to take out random rocket crews but if one does nothing to stop the leadership which is sending the crews….well, what’s the point in the big scheme of things?

The leadership of Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad has ensured the population is so radicalized that they are secured a steady supply of foot soldiers for fodder, that I say - it’s long past the time to target those who educate, finance and send out the kassam crews to work every day. If the leadership had to pay a price for every kick-back rather than be on the receiving end of the graft-backs - things might change.