News Analysis from Israel: Once S'derot is Evacuated, Will the Arabs Occupy it or Not?

Article comments

Subscribe to comment RSS

• 1 - Elvira Black

  Jun 01, 2007 at 8:54 am

  Ruvy:
  
  Are you anywhere near this area? How "safe" are you (relatively speaking) where you are now?

• 2 - Ruvy in Jerusalem

  Jun 01, 2007 at 10:34 am

  Wow! A comment!
  
  Elvira,
  
  Ma'aleh Levona is north of Jerusalem, atop a hill two or three hilltops away from the city of Ariel. From the bus station at the western edge of the village, you can see the smog of Tel Aviv and on a really clear day, the towers of its skyline.
  
  The ability of the rockets and missiles aimed at us from Gaza will only improve unless something very serious is done to destroy this capability. Given that our government has no balls whatsoever, as well as no honor or any other virtue worth mentioning, the day will come when the towers of Tel Aviv will be in flames.
  
  Considering that we are surrounded by Arab villages (all of which are younger than Ma'aleh Levona, by the way), I doubt that Arab missiles will come our way. But, one never knows... In a situation of all out war, I expect us to have to survive on whatever food we can grow here, the water from the local wells, the electricity provided by a few generators (if there is any) and that is all. I expect the electric grid to be cut along with the phone lines, though cell phones may work, depending on where the signals go through.
  
  I'm far safer here than I'd be in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, though Jerusalem will be safer, comparatively, than Tel Aviv.
  
  Shabbat Shalom,
  Reuven

• 3 - Elvira Black

  Jun 01, 2007 at 10:48 pm

  Ruvy:
  
  I'm relieved to hear that you're (at least relatively) safe. I don't feel all that secure in NYC myself, but I figure since I'm out in the Bronx now, I have a fighting chance if something "more minor" occurs, but as you say...there's no telling.
  
  Shabbat Shalom to you and yours!

• 4 - Dr Dreadful

  Jun 02, 2007 at 1:11 am

  Shalom Ruvy,
  
  I guess you don't get many comments on your articles because they're often local in focus, and a lot of us don't feel we have enough knowledge of Israeli affairs to be able to comment.
  
  You live in a dangerous part of the world. Stay safe, my friend. Best wishes.

• 5 - Ruvy in Jerusalem

  Jun 11, 2007 at 6:34 am

  Ze'ev Schiff in Ha'aretz has been forced to admit that Israel has been defeated at S'derot.
  
  Quoting from the article:
  
  "Even if we declare dozens of times that Hamas is under pressure and wants a cease-fire, it will not erase the fact that in the battle for Sderot, Israel has in effect been defeated. The superfluous declarations about the possibility of war with Syria should not divert our attention from the defeat in Sderot.
  
  Israel is experiencing something in Sderot that it has not experienced since the War of Independence, if ever: The enemy has silenced an entire city and brought normal life there to a halt. The despair of Sderot's mayor is one sign of what is happening. The sight of the town's elderly residents returning from a 'rest and relaxation' trip and refusing to alight from the bus and go home is additional proof that what is happening in Sderot is a national disgrace.
  
  It is worth listening to the words of reservists from Sderot and other communities in the south, who have met twice with Defense Minister Amir Peretz. They did not threaten to refuse to do reserve duty, but they explained that they live on Israel's front line and feel that the rest of the country and the government are not standing behind them. Their feeling is that the government has failed in the defense of the home front.
  
  And, in fact, the present government in particular, but its predecessor as well, has suffered a resounding defeat here. The government has not succeeded in turning bombarded Sderot into a national defense project. That reinforces the assessment that this government is incapable of leading the nation in a major military confrontation."
  
  ...........
  
  "...the IDF is not even returning fire at the sources of Qassam launches if the rockets are fired from populated areas.
  
  What matters is the final result, not the explanations."
  
  What makes this significant is that the paper carrying this was all in favor of expelling Jews from their homes in Gush Qatif and was all in favor of running away from South Lebanon in 2000 - the two events that have crippled this country militarily.
  
  The full article can be found at the link.
  
  Events in S'derot will not be significantly covered once Peretz is no longer Security Minister. The idiots in Tel Aviv have not yet learned, and will not learn until their homes are towers of flame, and the air stinks of poison gas - from the WMD's that all those "I hate fighting in Iraq" partisans insist don't exist.

• 6 - Ruvy in Jerusalem

  Jun 11, 2007 at 9:55 am

  Arab terrorists resume rocket attacks on the Negev.
  
  Arab terrorists resumed their bombardment of the Negev. There was no damage and nobody was injured, thank G-d.
  
  And the IDF did not respond.
  
  Click here to hear what it is like to experience a Qassam rocket attack.

• 7 - Ruvy

  Jun 03, 2008 at 8:36 am

  This article is a year old and got few comments. It's too local in nature. But for the few of you who do read this, I get to rub your noses in my prediction of the desertion of S'derot, which finally appears to be becoming official. According to Yediot AHronot today,the State is disengaging from Sderot
  
  From the article:

  
  
  State disengaging from Sderot
  
  Courts ban representatives from traveling to rocket-battered town, citing life-threatening danger posed to them there. Delivery of subpoenas to its residents now falls on shoulders of local police
  
  When Sderot’s residents protest they are treated like second-class citizens and claim the government has deserted them - there alarmingly seems to be more to their cry than what detractors call hyperbolic hysteria.
  
  
  
  For the town where thousands of families grimly face daily rocket and mortar barrages from neighboring Gaza has been declared too dangerous a destination for court officials tasked with delivering subpoenas to Sderot residents, at least by the chief justice overseeing the Magistrates' courts in southern Israel.
  
  Israel's subpoena delivery procedures dictate a messenger or court official must personally serve papers informing citizens of an indictment filed against them or a summon to testify in court and have the recipient sign for them.
  
  But this is no longer the case in Sderot and other Gaza-vicinity communities. Yedioth Ahronoth has learned that Justice Moshe Machlis has recently issued a new guideline forbidding court employees from traveling to Sderot to serve residents with subpoenas for fear they may be wounded or killed by a Qassam, or alternatively that in the event the town's roads are closed, the officials would be trapped.
  
  But the wheels of the justice system cannot stop and the some creative judicial thinking seems to have prevented the newfound inability to deliver the papers turn into a debilitating wrench in the works.
  
  And so, Sderot police officers, already burdened by a plethora of tasks 'unloaded' onto them by various State institutions, will trade their sidearms for pens and set about knocking on the doors of those subpoenaed, confirmation forms in hand.
  
  They will do this alongside providing advice on property tax, debt collection responsibilities (including eviction notices), and caring for anxiety-wracked residents.