Palestinians Rocket Israeli Daycare Center...

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Soldiers scrambled to evacuate babies from a day care center in rocket-scarred Sderot today after a projectile fired by Palestinian militants thudded into the courtyard.

None of the 15 babies at the center was hurt. But frantic parents across the city - already furious over the government's failure to protect them and their children from the near-daily rocket fire - pulled their children out of schools on the second day of the academic year.

The army said six rockets were fired at the southern Israeli city, which lies just a few kilometres from the Gaza Strip, and at least one landed. The Islamic Jihad militant group claimed responsibiity for firing three.

Batya Katar, head of the Sderot Parents Association, said parents were pulling all 2,500 of the town's students out of school.

"Buses are already on the way to pick up students who haven't been taken home already," Katar said by telephone, the voices of panicked parents audible in the background. The government promised to move students out of the city if there was an escalation in Palestinian rocket fire, she said.

"This is an escalation, but there is no sign of any solution," Katar said.

Wary parents in Sderot threatened not to send their children to school on the first day of the year on Sunday. But they lifted the strike threat after being promised the schools were properly protected and that shelters had been upgraded.

Sderot, a working-class town of 22,000, has been battered by thousands of the crude projectiles launched in recent years from Gaza. The rockets rarely cause serious injuries or damage, but they have killed 12 people in the past seven years, and because of their frequency, wreak panic in the city.

To calm jittery residents ahead of the school year, the military dispatched more than 200 soldiers to accompany students back to school in Sderot and instruct them on emergency procedures.

source

[Heracles 417]

"This is an escalation, but there is no sign of any solution," Katar said.

sums it up there..

I almost wish Australia just sells Israel a section of land in NW Australia..

[almaty 19]

a sad state of affairs ...terrible

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

"This is an escalation, but there is no sign of any solution," Katar said.

sums it up there..

I almost wish Australia just sells Israel a section of land in NW Australia..

Gooooo Israel2!!!!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I almost wish Australia just sells Israel a section of land in NW Australia..

Its not like they can't spare it

[Artegal 1]

The Palestinians have slowly but surely worn out their welcome with anyone in the world. Starting from the 1972 Munich Olympics, to the continued attacks on Israel, to the cheering when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, to the cheering in the streets on Sept 11th, to the just ended siege in Tripoli, where they managed to kill 155 Lebanese soldiers and another 20 civilians--all the in the name of what? Less and less of the world is willing to assist the terrorist life style of the Palestinians.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Nothin like sendin your babies into a war zone! Have kids will travel? Their pro choice all the way!

[mawilson 2,133]

Nothin like sendin your babies into a war zone! Have kids will travel? Their pro choice all the way!

Sderot is not in the "war zone", Marc. It's a small town which just happens to be close to Gaza

and within the range of their crude rockets.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Nothin like sendin your babies into a war zone! Have kids will travel? Their pro choice all the way!

Sderot is not in the "war zone", Marc. It's a small town which just happens to be close to Gaza

and within the range of their crude rockets.

Excuse my geography, Donating your childs life is fuckin stupid!

Edited September 4, 2007 by CarolsMarc

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

they should build a buffer zone wide enough to make the rockets ineffective.... using Palestinian land only.

[mawilson 2,133]

they should build a buffer zone wide enough to make the rockets ineffective.... using Palestinian land only.

The sad part is, Israel already had a buffer zone - the occupied part of Gaza - which

Sharon, in his infinite wisdom, decided to give back a couple of years ago.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

they should build a buffer zone wide enough to make the rockets ineffective.... using Palestinian land only.

The sad part is, Israel already had a buffer zone - the occupied part of Gaza - which

Sharon, in his infinite wisdom, decided to give back a couple of years ago.

Israel is being way too nice.

[Heracles 417]

You could give Palestine Australia, the US and Russia and they still would complain. And try to build bigger rockets to launch at Israel from there..

[mawilson 2,133]

Here's a rare example of things done right by Palestinians:

Israeli Court Orders Barrier Rerouted

JERUSALEM, Sept. 4 — In its latest decision overruling Israel’s influential security

establishment, the High Court of Justice here on Tuesday ordered the government

to reroute a section of its separation barrier that had split Bilin, a West Bank village

from much of its farmland.

[...]

About two years ago, the local council leader of Bilin, Ahmed Issa Abdullah Yassin,

hired a prominent Israeli human rights lawyer, Michael Sfard, to petition the High

Court on his behalf. Mr. Sfard said the fence put about 500 acres of the village’s

agricultural lands on the side under full Israeli control. The villagers had only limited

access, through a gate in the fence which the Israeli Army opened and closed.

[...]

The panel of three judges ruled unanimously that a mile-long section of the barrier

should be redrawn and rebuilt in a “reasonable period of time.” Chief Justice Dorit

Beinish wrote in the ruling, “We were not convinced that it is necessary for

security-military reasons to retain the current route that passes on Bilin’s lands.”

The Defense Ministry, which oversees the planning and construction of the barrier,

said it would “study the ruling and respect it.”

[...]

“We went to court, hired the best lawyers in Israel, and we won,” Abdullah Abu

Rahma, one of the leaders of the weekly protests, told The Associated Press.

Mr. Yassin, the council leader, hailed the ruling as a “victory.”

Jonathan Pollack, of Anarchists Against the Wall, an Israeli group that participated

in the protests, said the decision “proved that the people, when they choose to act,

have the power over Israeli institutions.”

New York Times

[DeadPoolX 9]

I would say that 99.9% of the time, I tend to side with Israel. Having said that, if I were to look at the issues from the Palestinian point-of-view, I don't understand how shooting rockets at a daycare center helps matters at all for them.

Assuming that the Palestinian cause is "correct" (and that's really subjective), the enemy should be those in power within Israel -- the government and the military. They are the ones who affect change and protect the country/enforce policy. Young children in a daycare have nothing to do with this. The children are merely there because their parents need someplace (presumably safe) to keep them while they're at work.

Perhaps the Palestinian militants who performed this deed thought that if they killed young Israelis, they would never grow up to become a potential threat -- either in the Israeli Defense Force or the government (or perhaps both). While such a strategy of annihilation might work during full-scale war, I don't see it becoming successful with hit-and-run terrorist tactics. Furthermore, if the battle between the Israelis and Palestinians came down to "wiping out the next generation," the IDF would probably be far more successful at it in the long run.

In addition to the combat portion eventually failing, the Palestinians play heavily off the sympathy card. Many nations around the world look at the violence and see the Palestinians as the "underdog" and side with them. If the Palestinians were to start aiming for children on purpose (and make this fact known), I have a strong feeling that in most countries, the support would drop quickly.

So all in all, it wouldn't benefit the Palestinians to go down that road.