"They Have Forgotten Us"

OK, I'm just as fallible and forgetfull as the next person. As we all discuss and argue about the wrongs committed during the latest Israel-Hezbollah war, the people of Sderot have been forgotten. I have to admit, I mean it is the 10 days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippuer after all, that I have forgotten about them also. Politically speaking, I have been so wrapped up in being upset over what's going in the government that I have completely neglected the fact that Kassam rockets are still falling in the Western Negev, especially Sderot, on a daily basis. And, nobody seems to care. Least of all, our very own government. I will repeat this statement until I am blue in the face and sound like a terribly broken record. Since Olmert has been sworn in as Prime Minister, he has not once visited Sderot!! These people are under attack on a daily basis, and they have been completely abandoned by all of us, me included. The media has not forced the issue. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans last year, the media criticized President Bush for taking days to visit the city. Granted, the media is a left-wing puppet and are always on the look-out for ways to bash the current administration, but they did take him to task for his actions. READ THE REST...

The Israeli media is also known to be seen as left-leaning, but we're not talking about a settlement here. We're not talking about a city that's embedded within "disputed territory", so it's completely illogical and irrational that the press hasn't jumped all over the fact that the Prime Minister has not once visited a sovereign Israeli city that is under daily attack from Palestinian terrorists. Why has it never been mentioned?!? There is an entire city suffering from PTSD, and there's just simply silence. It's as if it doesn't exist. I just don't get it. This isn't simply a "nuisance" for these people. Their lives are in danger and terribly disrupted every single day, and, again, nobody seems to give a damn. Our own Secretary of Defense, Amir Peretz, who lives in Sderot has not even forced the issue within Knesset.

Maybe, you can explain this to me, because I'm completely stumped. It is as if Fargo, North Dakota, some small no name city in the U.S., were under rocket attack by Canadian terrorists on a daily basis, and the President never spoke about it, never visited the American citizens under attack, and never even brought it up as an issue for the National Guard or military to take care of, or to the most minimum point, the President didn't declare a state of emergency for the city, never sent FEMA and emergency funds to the citizens. This is the equivilant. The people of Sderot are getting no special funds for psychological treatments. They're getting no special funds to rebuild destroyed buildings, property, or infrastructure. NOTHING! They are getting absolutely nothing! It is as if they don't exist. The Prime Minister of the State of Israel has a responsibility to take care of every single Israeli citizen, and they have basically told the people of Sderot that they are not worth the time since they are not a major city, town, or region. It's as if they're telling the people of Sderot, "Call us when a Kassam hits Tel-Aviv".

Sderot mayor: 'They have forgotten us

Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal complained on Tuesday that the government had neglected his town. "They have forgotten us," said Moyal in the wake of the morning's Kassam rocket attack which wounded a female soldier.

Moyal said that the North was being rehabilitated at the expense of the South. "They continually talk of rebuilding the North but hardly mention the South," he exclaimed.
[...]
One rocket landed on a traffic circle spreading shrapnel, which hit the female soldier in the stomach. Several other people standing in the vicinity suffered shock.

The other rocket landed in the yard of a residential home. No casualties were reported, though the house sustained damage.

The explosions caused several power cuts throughout the town and panic amongst residents.

"We heard the siren and lay down on the ground," said one resident. "Shrapnel flew everywhere, it hit my friend in the leg and I was hit in the hand," he added.

Another Sderot resident described the trauma she and her family have had to endure on a regular basis.

"We are living on borrowed time. I don't know how we continue living here," she exclaimed. "We are scared to leave our homes."

She said that she had a 13-year-old girl who was "feeling terrible, as are all the other schoolchildren."

"I don't know how children can carry on studying or concentrate in class," she said.

The anxious resident described how she and everyone she knows in the town were taking some form of medication to alleviate their distress.
"Everyone I speak to is taking pills," she said.
[...]
"we don't receive any benefits or compensation for living in the firing line."
[....]

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