What I Can Say About Sderot

Jerusalem
There are a few things I can say about Sderot. Let me begin with the flags. Several places along the streets are decked out in kahol v’lavan, plastic Israeli flags. Absolutely decked out. Flags on poles, flags on pedestrian barriers, flags on virtually anything that can hold the flags. I was not surprised to learn from Noam that mental health professionals were surprised to see a collective burst of optimism when the action began, rather than an increase in sadness that professionals expect to see when fighting commences. There is probably no single group of people more supportive of Israel’s Gaza operation. Not just for the obvious reasons, such as the possibility that the operation might end the rocket attacks. But for the slightly more significant reason, that Sderot’s government is finally taking action to protect its embattled citizens.

Which gets me back to the fact that for Hamas, it’s not personal. After seeing the facts on the ground first hand, Hamas’s real targets are the news leads of the cable stations and the front pages of the newspapers. As long as Hamas can continue to project an ability to terrorize Israel it gets the world to pay attention to it.
Images that stay with me after Sderot: the asphalt scars; the numerous shelters scattered throughout the city; in the center of a plaground park, the bomb shelter painted to look like a caterpillar to make it more kid-friendly; the damaged roofs on buildings that took a direct hit; the hundreds of recovered shells stored at the police station.

An experience that stays with me after Sderot: always asking myself, ‘if the Zevah Adom (Red Color warning) goes off now, where is the nearest shelter?’
Saul and I got a free pass when we visited Sderot. By that I mean, we visited during the week in which Hamas had said publicly it would not fire more rockets in order to give the Israeli army time to get out of Gaza. But as soon as that week is up, I have no reason to believe the people of Sderot will continue to enjoy the free pass. My hope, during the Operation Cast Lead as I read about it while sitting safely at my breakfast table in Los Angeles, is that Israel would not stop until the rockets stopped. But Hamas was still launching when Israel announced its unilateral cease fire. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at that time Israel could return to Gaza any time. But will it? If I were living in Sderot, in addition to the constant fear and post-traumatic stress all residents endure, I would struggle with the gnawing question of whether my initial optimism that my government was protecting me has now become disappointment.