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War on Terror

Negev Jews slam weak response to terror


By Ryan Jones
September 27, 2005

The residents of Sderot are reportedly disappointed, to say the least, with the Sharon government's response to a massive weekend ?Palestinian? rocket barrage on their western Negev town.

Between Friday and Sunday evening, nearly 50 Kassam rockets slammed into Sderot and the surrounding area, striking a school, residential buildings, and a community sports center, among other targets. Six Israelis were wounded in the blitz.

Israel's cabinet initially responded with strong words and approval for harsh military retaliation.

But on the ground, the subsequent arrest of wanted terrorists in Judea and Samaria and IDF missile strikes on empty buildings and open fields in Gaza were less than adequate responses in the eyes of victims of ?Palestinian? aggression.

?If you ask me, it is not enough,? Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal told Arutz 7.

Moyal said he told Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that his town ?can withstand any terror attack by the Palestinians, but that we cannot accept and withstand the fact that the Israeli government doesn?t react properly? when Sderot's residents are under such threat.

Sasson Sarah, a longtime resident of the Negev town, recalled that Sharon had promised her and her neighbors that after Israel had withdrawn from Gaza, there would be quiet and increased security.

But Sarah said she never believed it, having failed to see in PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas the peace partner Sharon and his American partners originally claimed he was.

?I said then and I say now that the only difference between the terrorist [Yasser] Arafat and the terrorist Abbas is that one wore a kaffiya and the other wears a suit.?

Nor has the government made good on its vow to unleash unprecedented fury on post-disengagement Gaza following the first artillery attack.

?Nothing has been done to protect us,? the father of Ella Aboukasis, who was killed in a previous Kassam attack last year, told Army Radio.

Ella died while protecting her 12-year-old brother Tamir, who has been plagued with psychological trauma ever since.

A shaken Tamir told Army Radio that the weekend bombardment ?felt like war. It all came back to me ? it is happening all over again.?

Brig.-Gen. (res.) Tzvika Fogel told Arutz 7 that the lack of a more severe Israeli response had everything to do with the fact no Jews were killed, despite the huge number of rockets used by the terrorists.

?Any time there are no casualties from an Arab rocket attack, Israel doesn't react or else acts with softness,? Fogel pointed out.

Fogel urged his government to drop the ?mantra that 'we do not hit back at innocent civilians,'? and start flattening an entire city block in Gaza every time a Kassam is fired. He noted that if ?Hamas operates from a given neighborhood, it's no longer an 'innocent populace.'?

?Every Kassam rocket they fire means we hit one of their streets - and we'll see what they have more of: Kassams or streets.?

The general concluded by concurring with Sarah that Abbas, who has publicly committed himself to curbing anti-Israel terror, is ?nothing more than Yasser Arafat in a suit.?

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