The residents of Sderot have set up 120 chairs with the names of every Knesset member on them with an invitation to come to talk with them about how they have to live with Hamas rocket fire.

I dont know who gets credit for the photo, but I took it from Rabbi Dov Lipman's FB page

this is a screen capture from a channel 2 breaking alert about a missile attack on Sderot:



It should say "color red" - tzeva adom - צבע אדום. A spelling mistake has Channel 2 reporting about the Red Army being stationed in Sderot - Tzava Adom - צבא אדום.

It is likely that the Russian army would take a radically different approach to the conflict. Having the Red Army in Sderot, might see the end of the conflict much quicker...

Was it a simple spelling mistake, or wishful thinking... hmmm

running for cover from incoming rockets, in Sderot..

photo credit: Rabbi Dov Lipman

Rabbi Dov Lipman led a delegation today from Bet Shemesh to Sderot to show solidarity and support for the people who are living under tremendously difficult conditions, with a renewal, once again, of the rockets being shot from Gaza. The picture above is from the visit, and a siren alerted the public to an incoming rocket. With not enough time to run for a bomb shelter, the visitors went diving to the ground..

Sirens blared in Jerusalem, Bet Shemesh and Beitar areas just now. Supposedly it is due to a technical glitch (aka false alarm)... Maybe they were testing the system? I hope that was it.

Those of you who heard it live - imagine the people in Sderot, Ashkelon, Ashdod and all the surrounding areas hearing that 20-40 times per day.... Think of what they have been going through the past 2 months, 2 years, 8 years...

What is especially disturbing is that many families have come from the south to stay in these areas. Many schools have taken in many kids from the south and integrated them, temporarily, into their classrooms. My daughters school has a lot of southerners. Today her school was having an "activity day", bringing a small amusement park of sorts for the girls to enjoy for the day. Sure enough, on their fun day, they get to hear sirens just like back home!

I just stopped in by the Sderot Fair near my office.

There was a nice crowd perusing through the merchant stands. There was a wide variety of items to buy, ranging from some packaged baked goods, to clothing, to ceramics, tablecloths, tupperware type containers, scented soaps, jewelry, hi-tech gadgets, flowers and more.




The most interesting stand in the crowd though was the one offering animals for sale. no giraffes or grizzly bears - just birds, rabbits and the like...


People were buying, and it is nice to be able to help them in ways other than charity... even though most people were buying things they have no need for, so it really is a form of charity anyway... but we call that "FEERGOON" in Hebrew. I was "mefargein" the people of Sderot.

If you are looking for a way to help the people of southern Israel, here is one more way. A number of places around Israel have brought a group of merchants from the southern areas and are having shopping days to enable people to buy items from these merchants as a way of supporting them respectably and not with charity. They want to earn a living, their businesses are failing because of the war, and this helps them earn a living.

Tomorrow and Wednesday they are having a "shopping fair" near my workplace. I will definitely be checking it out...


Look for one in your area... I know they had one the past two days in Eastern Tel Aviv (I think by the ports)...

The following video is chilling.

The video was created by students of the Sapir College in Sderot. They have to deal with this on a daily basis.

The rest of the country has been able to ignore it, some more than others, until now. The reality is though that sooner or later those missiles will have greater and greater distances and will be able to reach every and any point in the country.

I just received this news release by email. It seems like a good program...

NCYI LAUNCHES PROJECT SMS

Initiative Urges Solidarity With People Of Sderot

The National Council of Young Israel announced today that it has launched an innovative initiative intended to give people the unique opportunity to develop an understanding of just how little time the people of Sderot have to react each time a rocket is fired at their city. Project SMS (Solidarity Messages for Sderot) utilizes text messaging technology to enable people throughout the world to stand in solidarity with the citizens of Sderot by getting a sense of the urgency that they have experienced on a regular basis for the past seven years and taking appropriate action in times of crisis.

"The people of Sderot have been forced to live in a time warp of fifteen seconds for the last seven years," said NCYI Executive Vice President Rabbi Pesach Lerner, "When a rocket is fired at Sderot and the alarm is sounded, they have fifteen seconds to run for cover; find their children; gather the sleeping family from the top floor to the basement; and wonder if today is the last day of their life. I commend NCYI Chief Operating Officer Chaim Leibtag for creating a program that encourages us to stop for a moment and consider how the people of Sderot must feel during those fifteen seconds of sheer terror."

Project SMS, which is a joint initiative of the National Council of Young Israel and the Coordinating Council on Jerusalem, enables people to sign up to receive a real-time text message when a rocket is fired at Sderot, or anywhere in Israel. When the Tzeva Adom (red alert) goes off, subscribers will receive a text message that reads: "A KASSAM HAS BEEN LAUNCHED AT SDEROT...YOU HAVE FIFTEEN SECONDS TO:"

(and you choose)

1.Recite Psalms Chapter 130

2.Give Charity

3. Call the UN, the White House, your Senators and Congressmen

4.Pause for a moment and pray for the people of Sderot

To subscribe to Project SMS and sign up to receive the emergency alert text messages, go to WWW.SMSSDEROT.ORG

"Project SMS gives us a sense of just how little time the people of Sderot have to react when an incoming rocket is hurtling towards their homes," said NCYI President Shlomo Z. Mostofsky, "While the citizens of Sderot use those fifteen seconds to try and avoid the deadly rockets and the ensuing damage, we need to use those fifteen seconds to undertake a meaningful action, such as saying a prayer or giving charity on their behalf."

Today we had an amazing trip to Sderot.

Somebody in the office is making a Bar Mitzvah for his son. They decided that it was inappropriate for them to be spending a lot of money throwing various parties over the weekend, while in Sderot and the area they are suffering terribly. A plan was devised where they would give a present of 4 pairs of tefillin to children of needy families in Sderot who are approaching their Bar Mitzvahs. It was arranged through Avichai of the organization called Afikim BaNegev. He bought the tefillin from a scribe who was one of the evacuees of the disengagement of Gush Katif and now lives in Nitzanim (a community near Sderot and Ashkelon).
So about 8 of us, plus the Bar Mitzvah boy, went down to Sderot this morning. We went to the school, we met with the principal, we met with the four boys, we talked. The Bar Mitzvah boy gave each one his own beautiful pair of tefillin (each in its own bag with the boys name embroidered on it). The boys gave a present of a book to him. We talked some more... It was a beautiful "ceremony" and a wonderful idea to make the Bar Mitzvah more meaningful and not just spending thousands of dollars on parties.After that, Avichai (from Afikim) took us around Sderot a bit.

When you read abut fortifying Sderot, you really have no idea what that means. I thought it meant reinforcing some walls and ceilings of buildings. Not much reinforcing of buildings has been done, but some school buildings have already been reinforced, by what Israel calls "Kipat HaBarzel" - a metal dome or skullcap. Here is what it looks like.. notice the cover on top of the building.. that is nothing like what I had expected...

Let me tell you the story of a Kassam that fell yesterday morning in Sderot. This story was reported in all the newspapers.

This older couple has lived in Sderot for 30 years. They have only rarely left Sderot. In the past 8 years, since the Kassams have been falling on Sderot they have never, that's right - never, stepped outside of Sderot. never to take a break, never to go shopping in stores outside of Sderot, never never never. They would not leave Sderot while it was under attack.They have some children living in Sderot, but they also have a child living in Givatayim (near Tel Aviv). The child in Givatayim has been begging them to come for a visit and to take a break from the trauma of Sderot. they have always refused. Two days ago they finally agreed to go to Givatayim for a short visit of a few days.

The next morning (yesterday) at about 6 am, a Kassam rocket hit the courtyard of their home. Today we went to visit this home to see what happened. They would have been killed had they been there. It destroyed their home, it knocked down a secured wall that was in front of the house. It blew out all the windows in the house and we saw shards of glass embedded deeply in the walls of the bedrooms. Shrapnel was embedded in walls, the refrigerator and everywhere you looked. We spoke with their daughter who showed us around the destruction.From there, we drove around a bit and saw some houses that had their roofs destroyed from kassams. We did not go in, but based on the destruction to the roofs of these buildings, I can only imagine what it must have looked like inside the houses.

We then went to a house that had been hit by a Kassam rocket 3 weeks ago. They told us the story - the couple had their ten grandchildren over. They had all just left, the grandfather had also just left to daven mincha. The Kassam hit the house. The grandmother was there and was injured. It hit the house and came through the ceiling right above where she was sitting in an easy chair. She was lucky the explosion had happened on the roof above the house, because otherwise she would have been killed and not just injured.We went in and the house was totally destroyed. The ceilings were falling down in various places and a large part of the roof had been blown apart. They told us not to touch anything because the ceiling was being held up in such a precarious way, touching anything might cause things to shift and collapse on top of us.

We then went to the charity organization and saw their complex and what they do. They recently had a Kassam fall int he middle of their courtyard. That put half their activities out of business and they are still working to get reorganized from that. For example, their clothing gmach where they sell clothes for a few token shekels to needy families is right now out of order. They showed us holes in the walls from the shrapnel of the Kassam - it went right through 4 (four!!!) walls (made of geves/sheetrock) exiting the building on the other side.

This organization distributes 500+ foodbaskets every week for Shabbos to needy families. They had a team of Sherut Leumi girls and volunteers helping pack of bundles of food. We helped for a bit make bags of potatoes.

After that, we went into the city and looked around a bit, did some small shopping in different stores around town, and then headed out to work...

Here is a picture of a car that was driving in front of us. As you can see, his back window was hit with shrapnel from a Kassam.Maybe you read in the news today that Israel has delivered 120 more fortified bus stops to Sderot. I suspect they are planning to go into Gaza again the near future and expect a barrage of Kassams in response, and are planning in advance for that... Anyway, here is one being delivered.And here is what it looks like in place.

The idea is that it is a small fortified room and if a siren should go off, anybody standing at the bus stop has a secure place right next to them.
And here is a wall riddled with shrapnel...

There was recently an evening of solidarity with Sderot in Los Angeles. They had performers involved and actors, actresses and politicians joined in to declare their solidarity.

Here is a short clip of the event.. it is the only clip i have found so far... (Kol Isha alert: there are a few seconds at the beginning of the clip of Ninet Tayeb singing)


Sylvester Stallone, aka John Rambo, is presented with an interesting question - what would Rambo do to solve the problem. he got out of it elegantly, because I guess he did not want to say anything like go into Gaza and wipe out the whole place...

The beleaguered city of Sderot. A living hell for the residents. They can't move away, they don't want to move away, and the government has practically ignored their situation with empty promises.

The government has not performed any military activity to defend and protect Sderot (and the surrounding villages). They have refused to fortify the buildings, until they have been forced into agreeing, and then they only agree to a partial fortification.

The government talks about helping them, but today the coalition government voted against a series of tax benefits for business in the Sderot area that have suffered from the security situation (the bill of tax benefits passed, against the wishes of the coalition heads, because the opposition parties pushed it and garnered up enough support from within the coalition to overcome the coalition position).

Last week 10,000 people from all over Israel flocked to Sderot in a show of solidarity. They went to make their weekly Shabbos purchases at the shops in Sderot, as a way of boosting the local business, rather than just giving charity, help their businesses during tough times.

A group of people where I work wanted to arrange such a group, from our office. We put it together and scheduled the trip for Wednesday. We would do (some of) our shopping in Sderot, specifically looking for the "Mom and Pop" stores, rather than the big supermarket chains.. Those who could not, or would not, come along, were askd if they wished to donate towards the people of Sderot. We arranged with a local organization called Afikim Ba'Negev that we would be coming to spend the evening shopping in Sderot and making a donation for the people of Sderot.

Plans went full steam ahead. Wednesday arrived and we had about 20 people ready to go to Sderot. The guy in charge of raising the money, arranged the company to give "matching funds". He raised about 11,000 NIS, meaning the donation would be about 22,000 NIS (I do not know the exact final amount).

So off we go. I had to go pick up my car, so I left seperately from the group. We made up at which junction I would meet them. I got there way ahead of them. As I was driving, the radio reports that in the past hour 15 Kassam rockets had been shot at Sderot. Some hit a factory injuring a few, some hit a University injuring a few and killing one. The situation looked bleak.

We meet up at the junction and pull into the adajacent shopping mall to figure out what to do considering the situation. Some of wanted to continue on to Sderot, others thought it was being foolhardy and there was no way to continue. The guy from the organization called us and said we should go home. "All the stores," he said, "are closed anyway, everyone is in the bomb shelters, streets are empty. There is no point in coming today. It has never been this bad. I have never told peopel to not come, but today I have to."

We wait a little bit to see if things calm down, as the IAF was striking targets in Gaza, so maybe they would stop shooting rockets. Things just heat up more. We keep getting reports of more Kassams falling in Sderot.

Some people decide to go home, but some of us wanted to continue to Sderot. We were so close, and we did not believe things were as hairy as the guy described. Some of those who wanted to go could not because of rides and arrangements, so only three of us continued onwards to Sderot.

We make it to Sderot and find a city that moves on. Cars were driving the streets, people were waiting at (reinforced) bus stops, the shopping center and other stores were open.

We are driving around and suddenly we hear the siren "Tzeva Adom (color red)". That means an incoming Kassam has been detected and we have 15 seconds to find shelter. We pulled over to the side of the road, nearly getting into an accident as other cars were also pulling over, and got out of the car. We crouched close to the ground next to a wall for protection. About 10 seconds later we hear a "BOOM" and feel a faint thud from somewhere not too far away. We wait a little bit longer in case there would be another, as often they shoot off two or three rockets one after the other. A few moments later we get back in the car and continue on our way.

We find a little shop open and decide to stop in. It was a nice little store that sold snacks and varieties of "tchachkes". We bought some candy and potato chips. I told the proprieter (Nissim) our story and he said, "Of course we are all open - we need to make a living!!" He thanked us for coming and after chatting for a few more minutes we moved on.

We saw some flashing lights in the distance and decided to see if that is where the Kassam had fallen. We drive up there and find some police cars. Right there is a small supermarket, so we park and go in.

We are looking around, collecting a few items to purchase when suddenly we hear the siren. The storekeeper also had the radio on and a walkie talkie, so we heard all sorts of noises from different places. He had a bomb shelter in the store (it doubled as his storage area) and he, his partner, and his 16 year old girl cashier ran quickly into the shelter screaming at us to get in.

I was the closest to the shelter and went right in with them. The other 2 guys were further back in the store and the owner was screaming at them to come to the shelter. One guy came right away and the other did not come. He must not have heard (I think he was ont he telephone). They started screamign at him and eventually he came in.

They were very frightened, especially the girl who was very shaken. They were talking about how they cannot take it anymore. All day they have been in and out of the shelter (40 Kassam rockets fell today in Sderot). He told us that a short while before, one of the last Kassams had fallen right behind the store.

We waited a bit and they decided they were closing the store for the night and going home. We paid for our stuff and went on our way.

We are driving around, looking for some place to get a Shwarma or Falafel or something, and we pick somebody up. He says he will tell us where to go, and he needs to go right nearby where we want to go. So we give him a ride and thanks us for coming and tell sus how crazy the day had been..

He directs us to Shwarma place that would be open in the main shopping area, and we drop him off. We go in and look around a bit, buying some small things. We find the shwarma place and sit down to eat. This is the happening place, as people come and go, some sit, some are chatting, some are eating..

We eat our shwarma and decide it is time to go home. we drive through the city and as we are leaving the city, the intersection just out of the city is blocked by about 20 young men (upper teens probably) burning tires in the middle of the street, blocking traffic, in protest of the indifference of the government. The police basically let them get out their frustrations, as there are not too many cars anyway in that corner of the world, and cars could really go around it after waiting a few minutes. One of the guys saw someone he knows, who was a volunteer in Sderot with an social welfare organization. They chatted a few minutes and then we were off. Back up to Ashkelon and then home.

While we did not, could not, make a big difference, we made our little moral contribution to the people of Sderot. We did what we could, and hopefully we will reschedule the trip with the original group for sometime next week or in two weeks.

My pictures were no good, so if the pics I get tomorrow from the other guys are good, I will post a few...

Today I will be going with a group of people from work to Sderot. We will be showing our solidarity with them, and, even more importantly, doing some of our Shabbos shopping in their stores, as a way of supporting businesses that have been hit hard by the situation.

If I can, I will try to bring a laptop so I can "live blog from Sderot" if I will be able to locate a wireless Internet connection...

Wanna cry? Watch this news report about the child injured in Sderot yesterday from a Kassam Rocket. Good news is that the doctors successfully saved the child's arm...

On Friday, thousands of people from all over Israel flocked to Sderot to show solidarity with the residents. More than just showing up, they chose to make their shabbos purchases, enjoy the coffee shops, and eat in restaurants in Sderot as a way of helping them financially, considering the local businesses have been suffering tremendously from the situation.

Personally I did not go. I hate dealing with traffic jams, I hate standing in long lines in stores, I hate going places when everybody else goes, and, perhaps most importantly, I did not want to miss my Friday basketball game (the only exercise I get!).

I like to go places and do things when others are not doing them. For example, I arranged a small group to go to Sderot when nobody else was going. So we did not make the national news, but we went and helped on our small level. I am trying to arrange a group from work to go maybe later this week, and also trying to arrange my shiur to go again, maybe next week. Without the headlines, and without the crowds.

From everything I have heard and read, the visit on Friday was a wonderful event (except for the traffic jams) and was a resounding "success".

Here are a couple of videos from the visit:


and: