Two rockets landed in Ashkelon this morning, one directly hitting an 8-story building and another landing in a playground. 28 people were evacuated to a nearby hospital. The IDF has pulled out of Gaza, so clearly the rocket fire has nothing to do with our actions there (nor did it stop anything).

A short time later, 3 Qassams landed in Sderot and just south of Ashkelon. Another rocket landed by a kindergarten in Ashkelon where the kindergarten teachers claim they did not even hear the Tzeva Adom (Color Red) warning.

According to Ynet,

Sunday saw dozens of Qassam, Grad rockets and mortar shell fired at the western Negev: Two rockets landed in Sderot – one hit a house and caused several people to suffer shock; and the other hit a power transformer, which caught on fire, causing a temporary blackout in the area.

A Grad rocket fired at Ashkelon on Sunday hit a house in the city’s center. One girl suffered mild shrapnel injuries. Three children were in the house at the time of the Color Red alert – all three rushed to their secure room, thus avoiding any serious injury.

Several rockets fired Sunday landed at Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira’s (the Baba Sali) gravesite in Netivot.

No, this isn’t a repeat of the post from last week. More rockets landed in Ashkelon, with direct hits in private homes (children hurt).

Today over 20 rockets have been launched towards the Negev, and it’s only 1 pm.

Check out this blog post. It gives a glimpse into 36 hours of constant rocket attacks from the point of view of Laura Bialis, an independent filmmaker whose documentary, Refusnik, will be premiering in the Seattle Jewish Film Festival. Bialis has been living in Sderot. Here is a shortened account of this past weekend. You can read the entire entry here.

Friday, 3:00AM:
Tzeva Adom (Color Red Alert) does not go off, but there is a weird alarm going off– its the thing that goes off after there are several Tzeva Adoms in a row. It wakes us all up, and we don’t know what to do– do we run to the shelter? Maybe it is a mistake. I make a mental note to try and interview someone about the Tzeva Adom system.

Friday, 10:00AM:
I say (out loud) that we are lucky for no Tzeva Adom this morning. A half an hour later, we are getting ready to leave the house: Tzeva Adom, Tzeva Adom. We run into the shelter. This time, we hear the whistle. Avi always told me, that the scariest moment is when you can hear the whistle, because it means it is landing right near you. After the whistle, a huge boom that rattles the house. We run out to the street, all the neighbors have come out and everybody yells, “Where did it fall?” People are running around looking. We finally realize it has fallen across the street on the back side of our house. Luckily there are no homes there, just an open field.

Friday, 4:30PM:
Right before Shabbat. Avi’s brother and his family stop by to visit. His 8-year-old twin nieces are chasing our cat around our backyard and playing catch with grapefruits they picked from the trees. Aner is filming. All of the sudden, a huge boom. It was a qassam WITHOUT the Tzeva Adom warning– one of the scariest things possible. Then it starts: Tzeva Adom, Tzeva Adom. We run into the shelter. More explosions. Close.

Friday, 8:00PM:
Shabbat dinner at Avi’s parents. Avi is really depressed and angry. He keeps asking, “Is this a way to live? Why? Why?” He doesn’t usually get this worked up, but something about seeing his nieces exposed to the danger makes him sad. He can’t eat.

Friday, 10:30PM:
We are driving home. We have the radio tuned to 104fm, where after 9PM there is silence, but the Tzeva Adom is broadcast — supposedly a couple of seconds before you can hear the loudspeakers. We stop the car and run up the walkway to the nearest house. We bang on the door. Nobody home. We get close to the wall of the house, just in case. For the first time I am afraid, I can hear my own heart beating. Something about the process of trying to run and not knowing where to go.

Saturday, 2:00AM:
Tzeva adom. This is strange– doesn’t usually happen at this hour. We run to the shelter. Can’t hear a boom. Maybe its too far. I get back in bed and try to sleep. I hear helicopters.

Saturday, 5:00AM:
Tzeva Adom.

Saturday, sometime between 5 and 7AM:
One or two Tzeva Adoms. I don’t remember. I don’t get up, I don’t wake up. I just stay in bed. Screw it all. If they want to bomb me, go ahead.

Saturday, 7:30AM:
Tzeva Adom. We wake up and run to the shelter. I am so tired I can’t even stand up. Get back in bed. I can hear gunfire. Really loud gunfire… like a machine gun. Is is from a tank or a helicopter or something.

Saturday, 9:30AM:
Tzeva Adom. Okay, maybe its time to get up. I hear airplanes — really loud. Must be F-16’s.

Saturday, Noon:
Helicopters. I get online. I can’t help it. What does it say in the news. Thirty-three qassams from yesterday until now. Twenty-six people killed in Gaza, including some civilians. Several IDF soldiers injured.

I look at the press from the West and get very angry. Its mostly about their injuries. Another article about Palestinian protests about our attacks. This is ridiculous. If there were no rockets raining on us the IDF wouldn’t have anything to do there. I don’t like the way we are portrayed. We don’t want this war. They are dragging us in. What can we do? There are rockets raining on us daily. But in the media we look like the aggressors. It feels so unfair to be sitting here and reading that. My entire perspective has changed. I used to think that Israel needed to take care of how it looked to the Western World — that we can’t look like monsters. Now I know it doesn’t matter. They will paint us however they want. I just can’t read the news anymore, it makes me too angry. We need to move forward with our lives, protect ourselves. The government has a responsibility to protect its people. The question is, what is the best way to do that?

Saturday, 2pm:
Tzeva Adom. I’m alone in the house, I run to the shelter.

Saturday, 3pm:
Tzeva Adom. I stay at my desk. This is ridiculous.

Saturday, 7pm:
The news. Two Israeli soldiers killed. 45 Palestinians.

As I am writing this, more helicopters. More guns. Very depressed.

Rockets are still being launched into Israel despite IDF activity in the area that they generally come from (duh!)

Two were launched this morning and an additional four this afternoon.

Luckily, no injuries were reported, though there was structural damage where they landed in residential areas.

In an earlier post, there was a comment about if Israel ends the occupation, then no more rockets will be launched at it.

Thing is (and I added that in my reply), I don’t believe it will end at all even if we pull out today, for the simple reason that these rockets aren’t being launched at us because of the occupation.

They’re being launched as us because we exist.

I’m sick and tired of people complaining all the time.

I’m sick and tired of people making excuses.

I’m sick and tired of people blaming others for their mistakes.

I’m sick and tired of people not owning up to their actions and consequently resigning their posts.

But more than anything, I’m sick of conspiracy theories, more specifically the Jewish ones.

I’m sick and tired of people blaming the Jews for everything. If something is wrong, blame it on Israel. It’s like in my old job, when I worked in television. I dealt with everything that had to do with the tapes, and there was a producer who didn’t like me very much.

Every time that something would go wrong, she would blame me, even if it wasn’t my fault. The highlight was when the soundman accidentally pressed a button that made a fart sound go off on live TV. When we were off air, the producer yelled at me.

So I yelled back. Do I look like a sound man?! WTF?!

The point of my rant is this: today I saw that the Daily Star in Lebanon said today that Israel’s attack on Lebanese factories was due to us losing bids to them in the international market.

In what world would a country lose hundreds of lives for milk?! Are you insane?! Okay, so maybe the folks got pissed, but get real! No one would call the army to bomb a city because of a lost bid to sell dairy products to UN forces in Lebanon?

As opposted to some countries we know, Israel values the life of its citizens, and would never consiously put them at risk.

Especially not for cottage cheese.

Get real.

The Israeli apparel chain H&O have opened their newest children store in an unlikely place: The Plaza shopping mall in Ramallah.

A source among the owners of the mall APSC said that they are planning to increase future business with Israeli companies and they believe that business can be used as a bridge for peace. “The problem starts when people have no money, and then they don’t have any education and they turn to violence and extremism,” he said. 

I’m not sure it lays down the building blocks for peace, but it certainly can’t hurt… 

The Israeli Defense Forces’ recent operation in the Gaza Strip has been specifically designed to shut down the operations that keep sending rockets into southern Israel.

In the past year alone, around 300 Qassam rockets have been launched into Israel from the area of Beit Hanun.

For the entire article, click here.

With October becoming the most deadly month for US troops in Iraq in nearly two years, Palestinian preachers in several major mosques in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are celebrating the anti-American violence as a gift from Allah bestowed upon Muslims through prayer during the holy month of Ramadan, according to congregants.

One preacher in the West Bank city of Hebron said that the death of  American troops is promised by Allah in the holy Quran.

For the entire story from WorldNetDaily click here.

I kid you not. Another casualty of the Lebanon War – pot prices have increased 8-fold due to increased border security both in the north and the south.

Apparently the border with Lebanon has long since been fertile ground for drug trafficking into Israel, many times with full cooperation between Israeli citizens and the Hezbollah on the other side of the border.

Who says Israel and the Hezbollah can’t co-exist? All we need to do is legalize pot.

Or, actually, keep it illegal.

This post is dedicated with love to Fizz.

A Hamas militant died today while digging a tunnel to be used in the Islamic group’s fight against Israel, Hamas said in a statement.

A 20-year-old from a refugee camp in Gaza died “while fulfilling his holy mission in an underground tunnel… while he was preparing with his brothers and colleagues… to shake the Zionist entity,” the Hamas statement read.

This is actually the first time Hamas has officially announced that one of its members had died while digging tunnels used tboth to smuggle weapons from Egypt and to enter Israel to carry out terrorist attacks.

For perspective, in June Hamas militants used one of these tunnels to enter Israel and atack a military post, killing two soldiers and kidnpaping Gilad Shalit who, so far, has not returned home.

Two rockets were launched on Saturday and three more this morning at Israel. One of today’s rockets landed in Palestinian lands.

For more details, click here.

This ain’t no joke, folks. Due to the enormous amount of missiles being launched at Israel, the IDF has decided to place concrete tables in classrooms across Ashkelon. In the event of a missile launch at Ashkelon, students would be able to hide under their tables.

Sderot, which has been hit significantly more times than Ashkelon, already has fortified classrooms in all their schools.

The problem with Ashkelon, however, is that there are too many schools in the city, therefore making them safe will take years.

Ahskelon schools all have shelters in them, however the ones in the south of the city are old and don’t have enough room for all the students.

The problem in the newer schools isn’t much better, seeing as the shelters are too far away for the children to reach them with the short (under a minute) warning system that is currently in place.

Click here for a full article about this from Ynet.

A team of Shin Bet and Ben Gurion Airport security experts recently reviewed the security arrangements at Los Angeles International Airport and suggested recommendations for improvement.The original initiative for the visit was brought up by Jack Weiss, a Los Angeles City Council member who participated in a homeland security conference held by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, during which he was very impressed by the security arrangements at Ben Gurion Airport.

Upon his return to the United States, Weiss contacted the Consulate General of Israel in Los Angeles to arrange a visit of Israeli security experts.

The Israeli team made patrols and held meetings with those responsible for airport security, which is about to go through a USD 500 million upgrade. The Israeli team pointed out a number of weak points and holes in the airport security system and passed on a list of recommendations to their American counterparts.

President of the Los Angeles Airport Board of Airport Commissioners Alan Rothenberg said that the Israelis had at least six suggestions to improve security, some of which were relatively easy to carry out, and others that necessitate sophisticated technological developments.

Israeli Consul General in Los Angeles Ehud Danoch said that this is an unprecedented project in which the commissioners of an Israeli governmental body, as opposed to experts from the private sector, have come to an American airport for an extensive examination of the security arrangements.

Danoch’s deputy, Yaron Gamburg, said that the visit signifies a new stage of cooperation in homeland security with the US.

For the original article, click here.

Gaza resident tries to sneak 6 kg of explosives into Israel through Karni Crossing, to Palestinian resident of Tulkarm. Police: ‘We have no doubt we prevented terror attack in Israel’

The Shin Bet, in cooperation with Southern District Police, in recent days thwarted an attempt to smuggle explosives from the Gaza Strip into Israel through the Karni Crossing, it was released for publication Wednesday.  

A number of Palestinian laborers tried to smuggle the explosives with the apparent aim of carrying out a terror attack in Israel. At the start of the week security forces discovered six kilos of standard TNT hidden inside an iron cage used to transport goods from Gaza into Israel.

The same day, three Israeli truck drivers from the Negev were detained for questioning for suspected involvement in transporting the explosives. 

An interrogation of the suspects revealed that Mahmoud Samih Abu Nagi, a Palestinian residing in Sheikh Radwan in Gaza who works at the Karni Crossing coordinated the transfer of the explosives into Israel.

Meanwhile, the same night Rami Samir Abid, 25 from Tulkarm, who was allegedly supposed to collect the TNT once it reached Israel, was arrested at his home.

 How can you say we’re not being provoked? How can you say the Palestinians want peace when they themselves are treatening us with rocket attacks and suicide bombing with the sole purpose of provoking at attack on Israel???

This is an article from WorldNetDaily

By: Aaron Klein, WND

Several senior terror leaders in Gaza told WorldNetDaily that terror groups allied with Hamas in the Gaza Strip are planning a series of large-scale attacks against Israeli positions near Gaza “within the coming days,” including rocket attacks, suicide bombings against Jewish communities and raids of Israeli military posts.

Palestinian and Israeli security officials said they are aware of the attack plans. Israel said it beefed up security at Gaza border crossings.

The Palestinian officials said the threatened large-scale attacks, which they claimed may be imminent, are meant to provoke an Israeli military response in Gaza that would unite the Palestinians and thwart any attempt by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to dissolve the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

“The Israelis have misunderstood the period of calm in last few weeks and months. This was the calm before the storm,” Abu Abir, spokesman of the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees terror organization, told WorldNetDaily.

“The Palestinian resistance will carry out very soon a big offensive that will include shootings of rockets for a distance farther then until recently; it will include tunnel attacks and suicide attacks inside Israel,” Abu Abir said.

The terror leader urged Israel to respond with a Gaza assault.

“We wish Israel will come in (to Gaza) in a bigger way because we will turn the entire area of the Israeli operation into a big cemetery filled with Zionist soldiers,” Abu Abir said.

The Popular Resistance Committees is an umbrella of several terror groups, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Islamist sections of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared “military wing” of Abbas’ Fatah party. Israel says the Committees carries out terror attacks at the direction of Hamas.

Abu Ahmed, the northern Gaza commander of the Al Aqsa Brigades, told WND today his group decided to participate in the coming spate of theatened attacks from Gaza.

“The United States is pressuring Fatah leaders like (Gaza-based Fatah strongman and former PA security chief) Mohammad Dahlan into collaborating with them and dismantling the Palestinian government. We will not let the US dictate the future of the Palestinian people,” Abu Ahmed said.

Abu Ahmed said while his cell of the Brigades will work with Hamas, other Al Aqsa Brigades cells may not.

Asked whether his group is planning to attack Israel in order to stall the dismantlement of the Hamas-led government, the Committees Abu Abir replied, “No. But these attacks will mark to our people that the enemy is Israel. Killing Israelis hurts the Americans and the Israelis and this is who we should target. Not each other.”

The last major Hamas-led attack from Gaza was a well-coordinated raid through a tunnel of an Israeli military station at the Gaza border during which Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was kidnapped. The attack, which took place in June, resulted in the first large Israeli ground assault of the Gaza Strip since the Jewish state vacated the territory last August.

Israeli security officials say they have received multiple attack warnings against the same military station in recent weeks. They also said they received warnings of possible tunnels dug from Gaza into nearby Jewish communities.

Hamas won a majority of Palestinian parliamentary seats in elections earlier this year. According to multiple press reports Abbas has been considering dismantling the Hamas-led PA.

As Palestinian president, Abbas has the authority to abolish the PA and establish an emergency government that he would head for three months, at which point new elections would be held. Under certain circumstances, Abbas can maintain and lead the emergency government indefinitely, usurping Hamas’ power

Major Hamas-Fatah clashes are feared if Abbas dismantles the PA, said Israeli and Palestinian security officials.

Last month Hamas and Fatah engaged in heavy gunfights in Gaza, Judea and Samaria after negotiations to establish a national unity government between the two appeared to have fallen through.

Even if any Hamas-directed attacks are not carried out, Israel might still conduct a major military operation in the Gaza Strip in the near future, according to senior Israeli Defense Force officers speaking to WND yesterday.

The IDF officers said the Israeli military is set to present battle plans for approval by the government here later this week for a large-scale Gaza offensive. The IDF assault, a version of which includes reoccupying the Philadelphi Route between Egypt and Gaza, is aimed at blocking weapons smuggling routes, confiscating weaponry already transferred into Gaza, halting the rocket-firing at Jewish communities and badly damaging Gaza’s terror infrastructure.

The officials said the offensive is “crucial” for Israel’s security and would be the largest military operation launched against Palestinian terror groups in Gaza since Israel evacuated the territory last year.

The statements follow the regular firing of rockets by Palestinians in Gaza aimed at nearby Jewish communities and continued reports that massive amounts of weaponry have been smuggled into the territory from neighboring Egypt.

Meanwhile, if Abbas indeed dismantles the Hamas-led Palestinian government, there are fears Hamas might target both Israeli and regional United States interests.

A report in Time Magazine this past weekend quoted several anonymous Hamas sources claiming the US was urging Abbas to dismantle the PA. The sources, speaking to Time anonymously, said clandestine meetings were held in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to discuss the possibility of targeting the US

The report said the Israeli intelligence estimate is that for now Hamas will restrain from targeting the US, but if its government is toppled such restraint could dissipate.

Speaking openly to WorldNetDaily on Sunday, Abu Abdullah, a leader of Hamas’ so-called military wing in Gaza, confirmed the Time report.

“The Americans are supporting Israel unfairly and are playing a leading role in the conspiracy against the (Hamas led) Palestinian government. All Palestinians feel a hatred toward the American government and wouldn’t mind attacks (against it), but for now we are limiting our fight to Palestine,” said Abu Abdullah, who is considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas’ Izzedine al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades, Hamas’ declared “resistance” department.

Abu Abdullah warned to WND that if the Hamas government is “toppled” with the help of the US then “all options are open.”

When I was snoozing this morning between alarm rings, I realized that there is a fundamental difference between Israel and the Palestinians that will prevent peace from occuring in the region.

While the Israeli government acts against the Palestinians when provoked, Israeli individuals don’t.

The bible says “an eye for an eye” but the people don’t implement it. That is, if every person who was personally vicitimized in any way (which, unfortunately, is almost everyone – there is not one person in Israel who hasn’t lost someone or has a friend who lost someone) in this conflict (general conflict, not the recent Lebanese war) were to implement  the “eye for an eye” rationale, both our peoples would be wiped off the earth.

The Palestinians need to put faith in their elected government. For heaven’s sake – they have a government! Why all the resistance organizations? Put faith in your elected government to “revenge” for you or act in your name.

If you continue to take “an eye for an eye” literally (or whatever the Quran says), then this will never end.