Wednesday, April 2, 2008

The Children's Hour in Sderot

From an original article published in the Jerusalem Post
May 17, 2007 1:23 Updated May 17, 2007 8:38
Constant terror in Sderot By
MASHA RIFKIN


The first Tzeva Adom (Color Red) Kassam rocket warning siren went off while I was across the street from my office, using a friend's computer on the fourth floor.




Sderot kids taking cover during Kassam attack drill. Photo: Channel 10






As usual, we stepped into the corridor - the safest place in the apartment building - and waited.
I counted: 15, 14, 13... I had gotten to 12 when I heard the screams. It was a type of scream I couldn't recognize, half laughter, half terror, complete madness: 11, 10... it hit. A block away at most.
Everyone else raced outside; it wasn't until 30 seconds later - when I woke from my daze - that I realized the screaming hadn't stopped.
I was about to join everyone outside when, once more, Tzeva Adom: 15, 14... I had barely reached 13 when it crashed, shaking my entire body - half a block away.
My phone rang: It was my boss, Natasha, telling me to immediately come back to the office, as the fourth floor of any building was not safe.


My roommate in Tel Aviv, Jackie, was with me for the day, curious about my work in Sderot, and we ran back across the street to my office, as quickly as we could.
Natasha looked us over, then asked if we had heard the scream. She said a young mother was pushing her child in a stroller when the first siren went off.
She should have had enough time to pick up her son and rush into a nearby basement. Instead, she knocked the stroller over, child inside, and fell to the ground - screaming. She didn't stop until Natasha and others carried her and her child to a neighbor's apartment.

What do you picture when you read about Sderot's "anxiety victims?" It's this woman, convulsing, flailing. It's her inability to think rationally - to protect her child. She was only able to collapse, beating the ground.

Natasha, Jackie and I sat in the social work office, trying to work. That's what you do in Sderot. Stop. Go. Stop. Go. We didn't get much done as every few minutes we received phone calls from hysterical parents. It was 7 p.m., parents were still at work and their children alone at home.
All I could hear was Natasha screaming on the phone: "Calm down... calm down. listen to me, breathe! I won't talk to you until you breathe. Listen, your children are fine. No, I don't know why they're not picking up the phone. They probably ran downstairs. I said calm down."

Then Purim Yaakobov walked in; I will be taking her son to a summer camp in the States in June, and we had set this meeting last week. She had walked amid the Kassams to keep the meeting.
Yaakobov was still dressed in black, mourning her husband, who was killed by a Kassam six months ago. She lowered herself slowly onto a chair, her face absolutely white.
She was reliving her husband's death. She took my hands and, tears rolling down her cheeks, pleaded, "Please, I have nothing. I have no one. My sons are everything. Promise me he will be happy. I need to hear it from you, please, they are all I have."
Jackie - experiencing her first Kassams - threw her arms around her. Yaakobov left the office, and then... Tzeva Adom.

We ran into the corridor; there were many of us now, as the student volunteers were holding a meeting. I tried to count down from 15 again, but was interrupted by a student. She was laughing: "Hamas and Fatah finally made up, and in celebration, they're firing a nice salute to us!" she said.
We all burst out into fits of painful laughter... Boom.
The laughter stopped, and someone said what was on all of our minds: "That one was really close."
Again I heard screaming; I looked around and realized that Natasha was no longer there. Suddenly I heard her voice, "Masha, water! Hurry!"
I ran outside and found a circle of women, Natasha at the center, trying to comfort a young girl. Hyperventilating, choking on her tears, yelling for her mother, over and over again. Another "anxiety victim."
Natasha quickly poured cold water on the girls face, and embraced her. The girl clawed Natasha's back and shoulders, leaving deep scratches. Eventually her breathing returned to normal, when it came again: Tzeva adom, tzeva adom.
The girl fell to the ground screaming, "No, no, no, no, no!"

As I write this, Kassams are hitting Sderot. Children are screaming, mothers are collapsing in despair, and doctors are pulling shrapnel out of the bodies of Jews.

Cornell University junior Masha Rifkin of Newton, Massachusetts, is a volunteer at the Mishol social work office in Sderot.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1178708620058

A note from Radarsite:
The city of Sderot has been a frequent target of Qassam rocket attacks emanating from the Gaza Strip. In March 2008, the city's mayor said that the city's population was in decline, estimating that 10%-15% have left the city. (Aid organizations present higher figures of 25%.) Many of the families that remain cannot afford to move out or are unable to sell their homes.
The heartrending painting at the beginning of this article is a seven year old girl's interpretation of her life in Sderot. There is I'm sure a logical rationale for firing Qassam rockets at kindergarten children; but somehow it just escapes me at the moment.

Radarsite supports the brave citizens of the besieged city of Sderot in their ongoing nightmare. To show your support please visit the Sderot Media Center: http://www.sderotmedia.com/

5 comments:

  1. Thank you. I have relatives in the region and they live with this anxiety every minute of the day. Please remember all of them in your prayers. With your prayers and God's help the rockets will stop.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. We will I'm sure be writing about Sderot again. And we will post whatever updates you provide to us.
    Good luck and best wishes.
    rg

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  3. Have you not read Goddamn?
    3:151
    8:12
    33:26
    33:27
    59:2
    Bukhari Volume 1, Book 7, Number 331
    Bukhari Volume 4, Book 52, Number 220

    Allah's commands & Moe's Sunnah, one to obey; one to emulate. Did I write Goddamn yet?

    All claims of 'peace process', 'negotiation', 'compromise', 'settlement', etc. are fraudulent: malignant, malicious malarkey of the worst order. Who will stand and condemn them?

    Who will stand as a man, to curse & condemn the SandMaggots and the ideology which drives them?

    If Israel wants the torment to stop, she must act. She must rise up as one and scream: GODDAMN ISLAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    She must say Alaikum AsSamu wa-l-la'na!! Then she must act.

    Tehran must disappear in a flash of flame topped off with a mushroom cloud. Damascus must follow.

    The resulting funeral processions, riots & demonstrations must be bombed and strafed.

    Then Israel must ask, "Who's next?".

    There is one fatal fact which none dares contemplate: while Islam exists on the earth neither peace nor security is possible.

    Islam is permanent war. The world will not face this fact because it dictates the necessity of eliminating Islam.

    8:39 & 9:29 can not be admitted to consciousness. They must be ignored.

    Bukhari Volume 4, Book 52, Number 177:
    Narrated Abu Huraira:

    Allah's Apostle said, "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him."

    That means resurrection day can't happen; Moe can't pork his 72 Houris until they murder the last Jew.

    8:39 And fight them until there is no more Fitnah (disbelief and polytheism: i.e. worshipping others besides Allâh) and the religion (worship) will all be for Allâh Alone [in the whole of the world ]. But if they cease (worshipping others besides Allâh), then certainly, Allâh is All-Seer of what they do.

    Means that pagans & atheists must be combated until only Allah is worshiped anywhere on earth.

    9:29 Fight against those who (1) believe not in Allâh, (2) nor in the Last Day, (3) nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allâh and His Messenger (4) and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e. Islâm) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

    That means that Jews, Christians & Zoroastrians must be combated until they are subjugated and pay extortion.

    8:66 Now Allâh has lightened your (task), for He knows that there is weakness in you. So if there are of you a hundred steadfast persons, they shall overcome two hundred, and if there are a thousand of you, they shall overcome two thousand with the Leave of Allâh. And Allâh is with As-Sâbirin (the patient ones, etc.).

    That means that Muslims are guaranteed victory; a minimum 2:1 kill ratio.

    Islam is a predator which must be removed from the earth. That is the Fatal Fact which none dares to contemplate.

    While I live, by God, I will keep rubbing the world's snout in that fact!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ben says: "Islam is permanent war. The world will not face this fact because it dictates the necessity of eliminating Islam."
    There was a time not too long ago when I would have thought that statement a little too extreme.
    NOT ANYMORE.

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  5. Roger, I don't post anything that ain't fact, except conclusions rationally drawn from verifiable facts.

    Whenever I post numbers like these: 9:29, Bukhari 4.52.220, those are named anchors in the Muslim Student Assn.'s Compendium of Islamic Texts. If you have the Google Toolbar installed, you can select any of those citations, right click and pick Search the web for... to open a search in a new window.

    You can find those references in many of my posts, but the bottom line is at USC-MSA where you can read the surrounding "context" and click through the Compendium's menu system to read other Surahs or hadith collections.

    At my Crusader's Armory Blogspot, you can find a selection of my forum posts, many of which directly relate to the subject at hand. You will find them to be detailed and well documented.

    At my Crusader's Armory site on geocities, you will find an e-book entitled EgregiousAyat.chm. It contains tables of the worst of the Qur'an & Hadith, each linked to source and with Tafsir for the ayat. EgregiousAyat.chm is an indispensable resource for writing my posts & comments.

    When Islam's scripture, tradition & law are matched up, the resulting pattern points to the inevitable conclusion: peace & security can not be obtained without removing Islam from the earth. That is an inescapable fact, from which our elected leadership is hiding with their heads embedded in their rectums.

    We must continue to display the reality of Islam to our treacherous conmen as the fictional Dr. VonHelsing displayed the Crucifix to Dracula.

    ReplyDelete