1. Three More Kassams as Sderot Prepares for Funeralby Hillel Fendel
![]() With Kassams continuing to rain down upon Sderot and environs - three more were fired Tuesday morning, causing no damage - it appears that the public is just as confused about what to do as the government is. Hear two hours of LIVE broadcast from Sderot, with Yishai Fleisher and Tamar Yonah: In terms of monetary damage caused by the rockets, it is not limited to an apartment or a car here and there. Wheat fields in at least two agricultural communities in the western Negev, nearly ready for harvest after months of work, have gone up in flames when rockets hit them. "I sat and cried this morning when I saw it," said one member of Kibbutz Nir-Am, just outside Sderot. "This is our harvest season," Betty Gavri of Nir-Am told Ynet. "When you hear on the radio 'no one was hurt and there was no damage' - when our wheat fields go up in flames on the eve of Shavuot, that's not damage?" The holiday of Shavuot, which begins tonight (Tuesday night and Wednesday), is known as the Festival of Harvest (Exodus 23,16). As opposed to the city of Sderot, the nearby agricultural communities have a more earthy connection to the land; barely any of the 350 residents of Kibbutz Nir-Am, for instance, have left. "Our imbibed values are that our very presence here determines the State's borders. This is an agricultural tradition, that says that the land is our roots and our sustenance. If everyone would get up and leave, we could just close the entire country." Rabbis and Educators Call for Social, Military Help A group of some 100 rabbis and educators, many of them representing hesder yeshivot and yeshiva high schools around the country, descended upon the Yeshivat Hesder of Sderot on Monday to show their solidarity with the city residents. Among the participants were Rabbis Chaim Druckman, Chanan Porat, Tsomet Institute head Yisrael Rosenne, Yigal Kaminetzky of Gush Katif, Elisha Vishlitzky, David Fendel of Sderot, and Eliezer Sheinvald of Modiin, as well as Col. (ret.) Geva Rapp of the 'Face to Face' outreach organization. The rabbis resolved to continue activities such as hosting Sderot residents in their towns and schools, further visits to Sderot, offering economic and social help to needy families, special Sabbath and other events around the country dedicated to Sderot, and more. In addition, the educators called "upon the Government of Israel to end this national disgrace of the abandonment of Jewish lives in Sderot and the area, by embarking on another Operation Defensive Shield [i.e., a massive military anti-terror offensive] in order to restore the self-respect and the security of the residents of Sderot. To this end, the group resolved to embark on a campaign, including billboards, bumper stickers, rallies, and the like to garner public support for the cause. Other visitors to Sderot on Monday included Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzippy Livny, the European Union's Javier Solana, and Britain's Ambassador to Israel Tom Phillips. The Home Front Command distributed pamphlets to many communities in the Sderot-Ashkelon area, advising the residents how to protect themselves during Kassam attacks. Among those who received them were 500 expellee families from Gush Katif, currently living in Nitzan, just north of Ashkelon. For more information on Sderot, see the Yeshivat Sderot and Sderotmedia websites. 2. Woman Killed by Kassam Rocket in Sderotby Hana Levi Julian
![]() Palestinian Authority terrorists murdered 32-year-old Shirel Feldman in Sderot Monday night with a Kassam rocket attack that scored a direct hit on her car as she stood next to it near a bakery in the center of town. Ms. Feldman was pronounced dead on arrival at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon after suffering severe injuries to her chest and stomach. She bled to death as Magen David Adom paramedics raced to the hospital in a desperate attempt to save her life. One man suffered shrapnel wounds and was listed in fair condition, another suffered light injuries and 12 people were treated for shock in the same attack.
The rocket, one of a barrage of five aimed at the western Negev, slammed into the commercial shopping area in the center of town shortly before 8:00 p.m. while business owners were meeting to discuss the situation. Most businesses were closed as a result, minimizing what might otherwise have become a mammoth disaster. The Color Red missile alert system failed to sound the warning that rockets were on the way. Hear two hours of LIVE broadcast from Sderot, with Yishai Fleisher and Tamar Yonah: Two other Kassams landed south of Ashkelon and the other two exploded in open areas the western Negev. By 10:30 p.m., another five rockets had been fired. Two slammed into an area next to a western Negev kibbut. The others fell in various open areas around the region. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had harsh words in a statement issued following the attack. "We will take whatever steps are necessary to stop the Kassam attacks," he warned, but did not elaborate on what those steps might be. The security cabinet gave a green light yesterday for the IDF to resume targeted assassinations, and government officials warned that Hamas Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, and Hamas politburo chief and arch-terrorist Khaled Mashaal would not be immune from the attacks. By midnight, a total of 25 rockets had rained down on the western Negev. Two more Kassams had exploded in Sderot, one in the industrial area and the other in the center of town, causing some damage but no injuries. Earlier in the evening, a rocket exploded among the fields near several farms in the region. The explosion ignited a pile of weeds and started a fire, but no damage or injuries were reported. A rocket landed near a gas station, another hit a greenhouse, setting it ablaze. Another slammed into a kibbutz south of Sderot. ![]() 3. Ambassador Apologizes, But Storm Just Increasesby Hillel Fendel
US Ambassador Richard Jones has apologized for his statements about Jonathan Pollard. Pollard supporters, however, have a series of demands: They want a full retraction from Jones, as well as immediate action by Prime Minister Olmert to demand a pardon from US President Bush. They also say they won't let Israel get away with low-level Foreign Ministry talk of a release on "humanitarian" grounds. It could not be ascertained what Ben-Ze'ev actually told Jones - but Mrs. Pollard said it doesn't matter: "The whole thing just shows how not seriously Israel is taking this issue. It is not the place of a minor Foreign Ministry official to tell the Ambassador that it 'believes Pollard should be released'; this is something the Prime Minister of Israel must bring up directly with the President of the United States, who is the only one who can pardon Pollard. The Prime Minister is in constant contact with the White House. Official agents are not released just as a 'favor' on humanitarian grounds." 4. Calls to Re-settle Gush Katifby Hillel Fendel
With every crash of a Kassam rocket in the Negev, increasingly more voices are calling for a return to Gaza - for different reasons.
Comment on This Story
Respected journalists from Yediot Acharonot and Haaretz have written that re-occupying Gaza is the only solution - lending an air of "political correctness" to the simultaneous ideological call by settlement leaders and Gush Katif expellees to return to Gush Katif. The reasons advanced for reoccupation by the various elements are, to be sure, not identical. Military affairs correspondent Ron Ben-Yishai, writing for Yediot Acharonot last week (May 17), explained that it is based solely on security considerations: "Israel's key problem at this point in time is the violent anarchy reigning in the Palestinian arena," Ben-Yishai wrote. "Even if Israel chooses to undertake drastic measures such as cutting off electricity and water from Gaza residents, while indiscriminately bombing launch sites, there would still be no one on the Palestinian side able to stop the Kassam attacks. The only thing that will happen is that Israel will face condemnation and be isolated in international public opinion." "Under current circumstances," Ben-Yishai continued, "one consideration must guide the Israeli government: How do we prevent casualties among western Negev residents as a result of Kassam attacks, and how do we thwart the digging of tunnels by the Palestinians and a worse situation in the future as a result of Hamas' rapid strengthening? The most effective and virtually only modus operandi to achieve these objectives is an occupation of wide sections of the Gaza Strip." "Once the IDF controls most Gaza territory, it will be able, in conjunction with the General Security Service (Shabak), to gather intelligence information and apply it in anti-terror operations while proceeding to destroy terror infrastructures. Meanwhile, the digging of a seawater tunnel would curb the smuggling through Gaza's Philadelphi route." Ben-Yishai added that limited aerial and ground operations would not curb Kassam rockets, would draw terrorist fire and endanger Israeli troops, and would end with international pressure upon Israel. Instead, "a very large military force [is] required to stay in the Strip for many months... The question is whether the Olmert government will continue to deal with political survival and endless 'assessment sessions,' or whether it will finally start to act practically." Similarly, on the same day, correspondent Avi Issacharoff penned a piece for Haaretz entitled, "No Other Solution For Gazans But Israeli Occupation." Explaining that Fatah has been left without strong leadership and is headed for a military defeat at the hands of Hamas, "the Gazans are repeating one clear message: only Israeli occupation will save them. There is no other solution on the horizon." These calls were somewhat encouraging to people like Adi Mintz, a former Director of the Yesha Council [Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza], who was in the midst of publicizing his own call for a return to Gaza. Mintz, a resident of Dolev in the Binyamin region of the Shomron, wrote in the most recent edition of B'Sheva: "...Jacob was unable to be comforted for the loss of his son Joseph, because one cannot be comforted for the loss of someone who is actually alive... We, too, are unable to be comforted over the loss of Gush Katif for two reasons: Because we know that we will return, and also - just like in the case of Jacob and Joseph - because the crime was committed against us by our own brothers.This will show the Arabs, Mintz explained, that "they cannot defeat us, that this is our land, and that only we have the rights to it." Mintz emphasized the fact that the Jewish towns in Gush Katif and northern Gaza were not built on Arab land, and that the State of Israel's "terrible act of throwing out its sons" can still be rectified: "The public is still in the throes of the earthquake of last summer's war, and is open to new conceptions. The call and demand to return to Gush Katif is moral and just, on the one hand, and is a strategic necessity, on the other hand... 5. Lebanese Cut Power and Water, Then Shell 'Palestinian Camp'by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
![]() In the wake of clashes with a Syrian-affiliated terrorist organization operating in Lebanon, Fatah Al-Islam, the Lebanese government ordered services cut to the northern town the terrorists are using as their base of operations. The Lebanese army also shelled the town, which is designated by Lebanon as a "Palestinian refugee camp." 6. Clear Message from Israel, Mixed Messages from Gazaby Hana Levi Julian
![]() Israeli missiles destroyed a Hamas weapons storage facility and an operations center of the Popular Resistance Committee in the hours before dawn Tuesday. The sorties followed a day in which 25 rockets were fired at the western Negev, particularly at the town of Exploding rockets also ignited fires around the region, damaged numerous structures and again prevented children from going to school and enjoying end-of-year activities. Hamas Prime Minister Offers Ceasefire, Promises Annihilation The ruling Palestinian Authority Hamas terror organization, which began the intense rocket barrages against
This is not a new deal; the same terms were offered months ago while rockets continued to fly in violation of the first supposed ceasefire that was to end those attacks in return for an IDF withdrawal from Now, even as Hamas PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh is trying to negotiate a ceasefire with one side of his mouth, he has been vowing with the other to continue the battles until the state of “We will keep to the same path until we achieve one of two goals,” Haniyeh announced Monday, “victory or martyrdom.” Abu Obeida, a spokesman for one of the Hamas terrorist gangs, promised to continue striking “the enemy anywhere in Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh commented on Israel Radio Tuesday morning that offers by Hamas to negotiate a ceasefire were empty words. He said it was important to pay attention to everything that is said - to the Arab population as well as to the Jews. “When someone preaches that the State of Israel should be destroyed, he is not in the political echelon; he is a terrorist in a suit,” he pointed out. What does the political Hamas body do? It gives operational approval, if not actual ratification to those who are doing the fighting.” Mr. Sneh warned that Gillerman Insists IDF Withdrawal Was ‘Right Thing to Do’ This week’s intense attacks by Hamas are actually a sign of weakness, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Dan Gillerman explained to pro-Israel advocates in "We live in a world where when Christians kill Muslims, it's a crusade. When Jews kill Muslims, it's a massacre. When Muslims kill Muslims, it's the weather channel. Nobody cares," Gillerman said. 7. College and University Students End 5-Week Strikeby Hana Levi Julian
![]() College and university students will be returning to their classrooms Thursday after the holiday of Shavuot.
Comment on This Story
The National Union of Israeli Students approved a compromise deal with the Prime Minister’s Office in a 62 percent majority vote. Tuition fees will be frozen for one year and the findings of the Shochat Committee will not be presented to the government for approval until first being discussed with representatives of the student union. In addition, the government will return billions of shekels to higher education institutions over a four-year period in what is tantamount to restoration of budget cuts over the past several years. The leaders of the student union were forced to meet under tight security to review the proposal. Hundreds of their constituents were chanting outside the building, urging the union to continue the strike. Student leader Etai Shonstein had to be escorted under heavy guard after the students accepted the accord. Some students said they would not accept the agreement. Other students have been calling for an end to the strike in scattered protests around the country, usually small and quiet. Tel Aviv University students decided several days ago they would end their participation in the demonstrations, saying the ongoing walkout was no longer serving its purpose. The semester will be extended by one month in order to allow the students to make up the studies they missed. |
Tuesday, May. 22 '07 5 Sivan 5767 Editor:
![]() Why Pay More?
Torahs, Tefillin & Mezuzot
Genesis 2000 Israel Related
Teach a Man to Fish Lemaan Achai - Tzedaka with a Goal. We give a Hand, not a Handout. Together we can make a Difference. Secure Jerusalem Tour Eastern Jerusalem and see the new Jewish presence at Mt. of Olives, Shimon Hatzaddik, Kever Rachel, and more Hazorfim Passover Sale Passover Sale 30% OFF on all Seder Plates & Bowls, 15% OFF on all Cup & Wine Fountains Israel Charities
Colel Chabad Fighting Hunger throughout Israel since 1788. Plant a tree in Yesha The gift that keeps on growing Paamonim A new approach to Chessed. Charity - in the full sense of the word. Higher Education
Touro College Earn USA college credits in Israel, Bachelors and Masters. Specials
Torahs, Tefillin, Mezuzot Sales of Torah & megillah scrolls, tefillin and mezuzot from Israel Global Yeshiva Torah and Judaism Interactive Yeshiva Research Forums, Give or Get Jewish Answers Now! Unique Jewish Gifts Truly Jewish gifts with deep Jewish meaning and authentic blessings
|