Sderot, Israel—
I’ve got this struggle after seeing this a little closer.
Mostly, I see that the Israelis gave away Gaza, and are now getting bombed for it.
I’ve now met little children who are literally losing sleep over this, and who risk their lives by going out to play.
My sense of what is important in the world tipped again.
I’m told there is no middle class in Sderot, that most people are very poor, and can’t afford to get out.
I remember the Israeli leadership saying after the Gaza giveaway that there would be hell to pay if Gaza turned into a launching pad against Israel.
Well?
And, in the meantime, the poor and unemployed are bearing the brunt of the rocket attacks.
I’m told by a man from Tel Aviv that Sderot is otherworldly to him, that it’s not part of his universe or radar screen.
But Sderot is very much apart of the terrorism radar screen.
And the worry said by some is that first it was Gaza, then it will be Sderot then Ashkelon.
And I wasn’t heartened to learn today that some 150 reservations for Pesach have already been cancelled in Ashkelon.
Oh, and by the way, Israel is providing electricity to Gaza? Huh?
This madness must stop. But the people in charge aren’t putting themselves in harm’s way. They don’t live in Sderot. And many in Sderot we talked to today feel like a political afterhought.
I just wish you could have seen these children. I just wish you could have seen the pieces of a rocket that the yeshiva high school principal keeps in his office. I just wish you could see the video I saw of the completion of the writing of a new Torah in Sderot. During the celebrations, which were outdoor, code red sounded and a missile struck all too close. Nobody was injured, not one person.
You can’t tell me it was the blimp that protected these Jews.
Tonight when you tuck your child in, think of the children of Sderot. Pray for them.
Tuck them in in your heart, your dreams and your checkbook or any way you can.
But as sure as I’m writing this, Sderot is our universal issue. It demands universal solutions to save these Jewish people.