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February 13, 2008
Tit for Tat
Can you imagine an America where every day is a horror of rockets raining down indiscriminately on schools, homes, parks and gardens? Where a trip to the grocery store becomes an nightmare of dodging and ducking an unseen threat falling out of the sky? An America where a fifteen second warning is all you get before death and destruction rains down upon you? Imagine living in an America where every minute of every day, whether awake or asleep, the threat of a random strike killing you and/or your loved ones hangs over your head. Imagine such horrors in your home town, near-deserted streets, the empty malls and cafes, and the air of impending doom hanging over you like a cloud.
Every minute of every day.
You cannot imagine it, unless you are in Sderot, Israel. What is it like to live like this?
The Israeli government has turned a blind eye to the daily attacks on its people and the rest of the world is worse than silent, as there are constant recriminations and accusations of abuse heaped upon even the pathetic attempts made by Israel to stop these attacks. The palestinians shoot rockets at civilians, Israel shuts off their electricity and the world condemns Israel. It is simply ridiculous.
Today, I cannot help but remember when, on the day before the expulsion from Gaza, I sat with Dr. Yitschak Ben Gad, the Consul General of Israel to Florida and Puerto Rico as he defended Sharon and the "disengagement." On that day, we came to the Consulate seeking help for our people. The Consul General talked to us, smiled at us, shook our hands, took pictures with us, and he lied to us. I asked him, what will the government do when the rockets start and he said... we will bombard them. He sat in that room, he looked me directly in the eye, and he lied.
And last May, at the end of his term as Consulate, I again stood together with Dr. Ben Gad, he turned to me with anger because of what I said to him in that room, on that day before his government expelled the Jews of Gush Katif from their homes and turned the land over to terrorists who now shoot rockets on civilians. And Ben Gad raised his voice to me in a room full of people, to tell me "The disengagement was a disaster," as if I hadn't told him that before it happened, as if he were the first person to realize it and not the last.
I was able to shoulder that anger from Dr. Ben Gad, because I knew that his anger was misdirected away from himself and projected on me, and merely the result of his guilt and his shame. And he is guilty, and he should be shamed, as should the Israeli government, for not standing against what they knew was wrong and for saying what they knew was not true. Israel's leaders turned their back on what was right, turned their back on the State of Israel and turned their back on their people. They have bloodied their hands.
What kind of world do we live in where leaders will protest the inhumanity of lights out in Gaza, and yet ignore the rockets raining down on the citizens of Sderot? And how long can good people suffer before they fight back?
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 45 members, posts material from the Internet on how to manufacture rockets.
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.
The article in JPost was published on February 11th, the group has swelled to 335 people, of which I am one. I can't be there, but I can send money, and I will send money. The time has come to fight back. Tit for tat, and somehow, I don't think the palestinians are gonna like it much.
And maybe, just maybe, the peace-loving palestinians we keep hearing about will rise up and put an end to these terrorist attacks against Israel. Maybe, just maybe, they will stop allowing their homes, their schools, their children, to serve as shields for the animals who commit these acts.
Posted by LindaSoG at February 13, 2008 07:11 AM
Comments
Seems like uncommon sense to me. "Malone" in "The Untouchables" said.....
"You wanna know how you do it? Here's how, they pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way. Now do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that?"
Just sayin, is all. You shoot at me, I'm going to empty clip on you. And yours.
G-d bless 'em.
Wollf
Posted by: howlsatmoon at February 13, 2008 12:32 PM
I want Israel to hit back and hit back hard. Enough is enough.
Thanks LindaSoG. You're Israel's Angel.
Posted by: Stepperg at February 13, 2008 08:21 PM
You want to pay to help bomb people? By sending money, you will be supporting terrorism because that's what your talking about. You disgust me.
Posted by: Corrine at February 13, 2008 09:17 PM
Corrine, excuse me for being so intimate as to use your first name as we have not met, and realize that I do not ask your grace for what I am about to say.....
You are terribly, terribly wrong. Did you read and understand what the Writer said? Imagine that it is your children.....your Husband, Mother, dear friends....People that you CARE about rather than black ink in a newspaper.
The Israelis are being rocketed, bombed....killed. Every single day. Linda is a voice of strength for People.....good People, who simply want to live.
A Bully thug rapes you, and or your children....Today.....tomorrow....every day...they do not listen when you beg them to stop, they gain power to continue because your neighbors call YOU a Whore.....do you continue to allow it to happen?
Or do you cry out for a Man like me? Or a Woman like Linda? Someone who will stop what is happening.
Corinne, I have given Life, and I have Taken Life. I am haunted by both. I agree with the Writer of this Blog and the earlier commenters.
You do not understand what a Terrorist is. You do not understand what DEATH is. I pray you never do.
In the mean time, there are People like ME and my Beloved who do. I shall not condone Terrorism.
I and Mine shall Support self defense, no matter what. By the way......the nom de plume? I am a Catholic, and American, and a Proud and Necessary Weapon in the fight to save Your progeny from random missiles in your home town. You don't get it, I understand that, and I beg your forgiveness for calling you a ......
Fool.
Pale Rider, a Friend that you need but fear.
Posted by: Pale Rider at February 14, 2008 02:22 AM
"What kind of world do we live in where leaders will protest the inhumanity of lights out in Gaza, and yet ignore the rockets raining down on the citizens of Sderot?"
Sadly, the same world in which people were loaded into cattle cars and transported off to be made into soap.
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ!
Posted by: ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ at February 14, 2008 08:28 AM
Here in the US, a sick person kills several before killing himself or is killed by law enforcement and it makes headline news for a week. In Israel, a sick person kills several and goes back to his Palestinian home to boast and bray without fear of retribution.
Does anyone think that if the Israelis do start shooting home-made rockets across the border, that Israeli law enforcement will stand by? Not likely.
And, that describes the two groups perfectly.
Katonti,
Posted by: Oran Woody at February 18, 2008 08:25 AM