Palestinian Rocket Inflicts Heavy Damage on Shliach’s House
SDEROT, Israel — As Israel Defense Force air strikes against Hamas targets in the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip extended into the fourth day of fighting, enemy rockets rained down on civilian centers, sending citizens scurrying and damaging homes, including that of Rabbi Chananel and Tzivia Pizem, Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries in the border town of Sderot.
The intermittent barrages throughout the morning – which wreaked havoc as far as Ashdod, almost 40 kilometers from Gaza – followed a day of some of the worst rocket attacks in the war. Three Israelis, one a Bedouin construction worker, were killed on Monday.
Tzivia Pizem said that it was because of Divine Providence that she and her whole family were not home at the time of the 11 a.m. barrage. She normally travels to the central Israeli village of Kfar Chabad every Tuesday for a full day of Torah learning, and this time decided to take her husband and children with her.
Reached as she and her husband made their way back to inspect the damage, Pizem was in tears.
“Thank G-d we’re fine,” she said. “We’re not home yet. We’re getting there. I’m thinking, ‘What now?’ I have no idea.”
worried
do they have somewhere to live now
yankel
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On the mark
I believe the following piece by Jonathan Mark is right on the mark!
Israel’s Response Is Disproportionate
By Jonathan Mark
I condemn Israel’s disproportionate attack on Hamas because, so far, it has only lasted four days and I would like to see a proportionate response that terrifies Hamas for seven years, the years that have filled Sderot and neighboring towns with nightmares, death, amputations and trauma coming from rockets and mortars fired from Gaza.
Perhaps a proportionate response would have Gaza’s leaders fearful of being killed every day for the next two years, as Gilad Shalit has been terrified of torture and death every day for the last two years in his solitary Gaza dungeon.
A proportionate response would have Hamas mothers and fathers as fearful for their children’s lives as Shalit’s mother and father have been fearful for Gilad’s life.
A proportionate response would have Gaza’s children crying for their mommies and daddies, the way at a Hamas pageant earlier in December a Palestinian actor dressed as Shalit got down on his knees, mock-begging in Hebrew for his Ima and Abba while the Gaza crowds laughed.
A proportionate response would so intimidate Hamas that they will grovel and, as a “gesture,” send cocoa and jam into Sderot, the way Israel has groveled in response to rockets from Hamas, sending cocoa and jam into Gaza. Imagine Churchill sending cocoa and jam into Berlin as a humanitarian gesture after – during – the bombing of London.
A proportionate response would be one that will convince Hamas there is no military solution, no solution but surrender. They can then call surrender a “peace process,” if they like, just as the mostly unanswered attacks on Jews have convinced some Jews that there is no military solution but surrender to any and all demands. They suggest a euthanasia by the euphemism of “peace process,” that Israel become what some are already planning to call “Canaan,” a non-Jewish state of all its citizens.
A proportionate response will convince Palestinians that if they insist that the starting point to peace negotiations is that no Jew be allowed to live on the West Bank, the proportionate response will be that Israel’s starting point in negotiations is that no Arab be allowed to live in Tel Aviv. Horrible to contemplate? Fine, let there be a proportionate negotiation.
A proportionate response to Hamas, one might gather from the European scolds, would be as if the United States, after Pearl Harbor, would bomb just a few Japanese fishing boats and call it a day, believing the war would have ended with that.
A proportionate response will begin to remind Jews that there is no peace process like victory, just as Israel’s decade of disproportionate restraint and self-doubt has convinced young Palestinians that their victory is inevitable, like Aryan youth in 1933 singing “Tomorrow Belongs To Me.”
Let it be said to Israelis and Jews everywhere, in the words of Churchill: “You have enemies? Good. It means you’ve stood up for something.” But remember: A war (and Hamas has repeatedly said this is war) is never won if you are disproportionately kind to someone who wants to destroy you and, failing in that, demands with indignation that you not destroy him.
When meeting that enemy, be proportionate.
scarey
i was there last year for shabbes
family member
they are staying at a home of friends in kfar chabad until there house is fixed.
if someone wants to help chanael and tzivia pizem family directly they could send checks to Chabad of Sderot, 512 Montgomery st, brooklyn, ny 11225
ShmuliT
Thats crazy, i was by the farbrengen at their house this past friday night with a bunch of bochrim.
The Rabbi is such an optomistic guy and is still walking arround with a smile on his face.