Last night at Temple Sinai of North Dade we were introduced to two nice young men who were from the town of Sderot which is near the border of Gaza.  Because of that closeness, Sderot has been bombed by handmade Katuska Rockets that Hagbi and Erez estimated to cost about $13 to make, almost on a daily basis for years.  They are living testimony to the on-going anger and unfairness between parts of the two states in what used to be Palestine.  The proximity of Sderot and Gaza is a one way path of destruction from Gaza to Sderot.  Sderot does not bomb Gaza.

The two nice young men told bits of the story of their lives under constant threat of the bombs being sent over indiscriminately without a specific target in mind.  They were in school most of the time and in only recent times were there sirens that gave a 15 second warning to get under cover. Tamir Erez, who is now 26, was wounded in one of the rocket attacks.  His English was not as facile as that of Ziv Hagbi who is 19 and has just finished high school.  Both were sponsored by the Greater Miami Jewish Federation and the Jewish Agency and are part of a lecture tour along the southern tier of States.

The question is; what did they do to be bombed?  The answer is, of course, nothing - except for being Jewish and living in Sderot considered a good target by the new rulers of Gaza.  Gaza is an overpopulated squalid town now ruled by Hamas that considers constant rocket attacks on Sderot to be their job for they know there will be no retaliation.  That is the difference between the two peoples who should be on friendly terms, exchanging students, trading as partners and having a border that filters people rather than excludes them.

Hamas has declared itself to be the enemy of Israel and does all it can to cement its leadership in Gaza by actually helping the Gazans.  They also carry on almost daily rocket attacks on Sderot because it is near and they do not have any particular target and those rockets are not particularly accurate anyway.

The way of life in Sderot was briefly discussed by the two nice young men who are planning their lives around the national service that is expected of them.  One has already completed his and is going to college while the younger one expects to enter service in a few months.

The question is again asked, what did they do to deserve to be attacked by rockets that are particularly nasty bombs?  The answer is simple.  They are Jews living in a Jewish town and are considered enemies by Gazans ruled by Hamas.