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| Remains of the rocket that fell outside the nursery in Kibbutz Saad |
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Reuven Koret is the publisher of Israel Insider and the CEO of Koret Communications.
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By Reuven Koret
December 26, 2005
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| Children take cover in a drill in the town of Sderot (Channel 10) |
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The children were celebrating their chanukah party at Kibbutz Saad, areligious kibbutz in southern Israel. The ganim (nurseries and kindergartens) had practiced the dance and song for weeks for tonight's party. They sang, they lit their candles, and their started eating their traditional sufganiot [doughnuts].
The Arab terrorists use Dugit, Aleh Sinai, and other abandoned Jewish communities as their launching pads for firing mortars and rockets, enabling them to shoot closer to the Jews in Ashkelon and the Western Negev, including the children of Kibbutz Saad.
The first kassam hit outside the building of the celebration as the nursery children were in the middle of their Chanukah dance. The kindergarten children were still eating their sufganiot.
The 85 children began to scream and cry as the parents who were in the audience raced from their chairs in the audience of the kibbutz hall to try and protect their children on this second night of Chanukah, 2005.
The Prime Minister had in previous days ordered the IDF to fire back at the kassams from the PLO and Hamas -- onto empty land and ruined structures from which the rockets were fired. At 6 pm on the second night of Chanukah, the Prime Minister ordered additional artillery strikes -- on more empty land and ruined structures in the Jewish communities he destroyed.
Just after 6 pm, the children and their parents ran in hysteria from the kibbutz hall as another missile fell onto Kibbutz Saad. The menorah of the kibbutz fell during the attack.
Prime Minister Sharon's doctors today announced that Sharon has a tiny hole in his heart and would need to have a catheter set in two weeks to try and repair the hole.
This is not true. The Prime Minister's heart is beyond repair. His heart failed after evicting 9000 Jews in August 2005 from their homes in Gush Katif to end terror from Gaza.
Prime Minister Sharon's doctors announced that Sharon briefly lost his capacity to decide on the night of his stroke, and had trouble for a short period remembering his name and location.
This is not true. For years now, the Prime Minister has not remembered the man and hero he once was, or the land he once built up and defended, with brains and courage.
Today, the women soldiers in Ashkelon's IDF training base won't come back to their base as kassams fall on their unprotected tents. Or if they come, as today's newspaper showed, they are accompanied by lawyers. And the Defense Department will, as Defense Minister Mofaz ordered, spend 125 million shekels to protect the base with concrete walls.
Today the radio reported that the terrorists have now extended the range of their rockets and kassams to as much as 15 to 25 kilometers (9 to 15 miles). More cities are now in range, more kibbutzim will be terrorized. More concrete walls will be ordered built to protect the soldiers and the kids.
Today the 4 and 5 year olds of Kibbutz Saad, and their parents, have survived to tell of their own miracle of Chanukah.
Today these children are safe but the people of Israel cry out for answers that the doctors can't give them.
Ariel Sharon may have a successful operation to fix the hole in his heart, but that won't make his country whole again.
Today the doctors admit that Ariel Sharon had more than a mild stroke. The country he leads is in more serious trouble.
Tonight, the second night of chanukah, we ask ourselves: When and how will Israel replace its head, and make its heart whole, and start at last to act like Israel again?
With appreciation to Harvey Tannenbaum for the inspiration.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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