Letter from Israel: The Forward got it wrong

By Nechemia Meyers

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When I asked a number of my usually well-informed friends how long Sderot has been under bombardment by Kassam rockets, the answers varied.
Some said nine months, others said a year, and a few ventured to suggest that it was about a year and a half.
They were all wrong.
Kassams first hit Sderot in October 2000; the only difference now is that they come flying in more frequently to Sderot than they did six years ago, and also hit targets further to the north. All in all, 600 Kassams have struck Israel since January 1, 2006.
The problem of the Kassams is no less important a reason for the current Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip as the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit.

However, Israeli efforts to make the world cognizant of this fact have been singularly unsuccessful.
So many overseas observers agree with U.N. Secretary Anan when he charges Israel with "a disproportionate use of force in its efforts to free Shalit."
Of course, Anan has never been a great fan of Israel.
But even those more supportive of the Jewish state have said roughly the same thing, including the respected Forward newspaper of New York.
In a recent editorial it wrote, "It's hard not to notice the huge imbalance between Israel's large-scale actions in Gaza in the past two weeks—bombing bridges, government offices and a university; leaving half the population without power, rounding up elected officials—and the ostensible goal of the operation, rescuing a single hostage."
Here in Israel itself there are those who speak in the same tone—if they are outside the present range of the Hamas rockets.
The threat of the Kassams is real enough for the residents of Sderot, Ashkelon and a dozen Negev kibbutzim and moshavim. But this threat is understood, if at all, by only a small percent of the people who live in comfort and security further to the north.
What determines the reactions of those not directly affected are the images they see on their television sets, whether in New York or Netanya.
They can't fail to be affected by shots from Gaza that show a faucet from which the last drops of water are dripping, bloodstained children who were near a Hamas terrorist when he was hit by an Israeli rocket, or a bridge destroyed in IDF shells.
These are far more dramatic than shots of a Sderot house damaged by a Kassam or of a bombarded school in Ashkelon.
The latter might have made the TV news if blood had been spilled, but, fortunately, there were no pupils in the building when the rocket landed.
All in all, less than a half-dozen Israelis have been killed by the Kassams, fewer than usually die when a suicide bomber blows himself up in a bus, cafe or supermarket.
But that is not the point.
No country in the world would allow its population to be hit by rockets hundreds of times without lashing out against the attackers.

Nechemia Meyers is a writer in Rehovot, Israel.