{"id":2063,"date":"2014-08-29T06:59:48","date_gmt":"2014-08-29T06:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/?p=2063"},"modified":"2016-08-29T12:39:32","modified_gmt":"2016-08-29T12:39:32","slug":"four-days-in-rocket-city-sderot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/four-days-in-rocket-city-sderot\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Days in ‘Rocket City’ – Sderot"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ian Norton,<\/p>\n

‘Welcome to Sderot’ the road sign reads as I enter this battered Southern Israel city just before\u00a0Shabbat. Within a few minutes of arriving, the screaming of an Iron Dome rocket being launched to intercept an\u00a0incoming rocket from Gaza interrupts your heart beat. Then as the rocket gets intercepted and explodes just overhead one immediately understands this place is not your typical city!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Sderot<\/a>

An earily quiet Sderot bus\/rocket shelter – Photo by Ian Norton<\/p><\/div>\n

The first thing one notes is the erratic driving. Not because of an incompetence behind the wheel, but of the urgency to just get to one’s destination where the safety of a bomb shelter beckons.<\/p>\n

Within 24 hours you have familiarized yourself with the 6 distinct sounds that permeate daily life in Sderot: Tzeva-Adom (Red Alert Siren)<\/strong> – Iron Dome launching<\/strong> – Rockets getting hit out of sky<\/strong> – Rockets hitting ground<\/strong> – Tanks firing into Gaza<\/strong> and birds singing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I notice an elderly gentleman with a walking cane moving about 100 meters an hour and wonder… “How many times he must have been close to a heart attack, knowing he would not be able to find protective cover in time anyway”? To be caught between the supermarket and home every day in the midst of an imminent incoming rocket, the horror of this potentially life ending situation is written all across his face.<\/p>\n

For the Beauty Salon’s there is not much work, neither do you see a younger generation cruising around town with loud music in a car that would drown out the ‘Tzeva Adom’<\/strong> alerts! Here, an above average percentage of Sderot\u2019s citizens carry the eyes of an over medicated people with a distant gaze wearily fixed upon the safety of their bomb shelter back home.<\/p>\n

\"elderly<\/a>

elderly gentleman in Sderot<\/p><\/div>\n

The room I am staying in Sderot faces Gaza and as I lie in bed actually watching the Iron Dome launch from the comfort of my bed one starts to grasp, appreciate then applaud the resilience of Sderot’s population – How horrific life must have been like before Iron Dome? The last 9 years have indeed taken a toll no other civilized nation would allow their people to tolerate either.<\/p>\n

6:00am in the morning I head for a shower and within two minutes the ‘Tzeva Adom’<\/strong> rocket siren warns of 15 seconds to get to the bomb shelter – that was the quickest shower ever! I then head outside for some air when again ‘Tzeva Adom… Tzeva Adom’<\/strong> warns once again of potential finalities.<\/p>\n\nhttps:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Tzeva-Adom.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Recording of Tzeva Adom Warning<\/strong><\/p>\n

Faith starts to feel more precious than ever in this kind of environment \u2013 Wisdom still says \u2018Get back to the bomb shelter Ian\u2019!<\/p>\n

Sunday in Sderot was a blessing \u2013 Together with a friend (Stewart) who operates a humanitarian aid organization \u2018Hope for Sderot\u2019 (www.hopeforsderot.com) we took 14 Shwarma meals to the soldiers guarding the Iron Dome (and us) – While chatting with some of the soldiers one of them said “This is not going to end soon.”<\/em> That’s truth for sure \u2013 even though a ceasefire was agreed I kinda get the sense this thing has not even really started yet!<\/p>\n

\"DF<\/a>

We took food to these IDF soldiers operating Sderot’s Iron Dome – Photo by Ian Norton<\/p><\/div>\n

This is not my first time in Sderot – Back in August 2005 I came to demonstrate against Ariel Sharon’s (the then Prime Minister of Israel) Israeli disengagement from Gaza plan, also known as “Gaza expulsion.” About 1,700 families were uprooted along with all Israeli army personnel. The idea was that Gaza could become a \u2018new Singapore\u2019 for the Arabs to prosper (as the Jews did there).<\/p>\n

That plan backfired somewhat \u2013 Just 10 days after the last Jew had been removed the rockets started being fired (again) into Israel from Gaza \u2013 and have continued till this day.<\/p>\n

\"Rockets<\/a>

Me visiting the Sderot police station collection of rockets fired into town from Gaza<\/p><\/div>\n

During \u2018Operation Protective Edge\u2019 the IDF did more than any other army in the world would do to protect civilians in enemy territory. Surgically targeting the source of incessant rocket attacks with a heart that values all life. Still, the world’s (obsessive) outrage against Israel came as little surprise \u2013 Past conflicts have always exposed the (ungodly) nature of a world all too ready to side against Israel.<\/p>\n

Now we\u2019re gonna get into the sensitive stuff!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Typically however, Israeli’s again take a deep breath and push ahead resigning themselves to (an understood) feeling of “Sure, they hate us whatever we do anyway!”<\/p>\n

History shows just how true that ugly reality is, but rarely does anyone ask WHY?<\/p>\n

Instead, comparisons are drawn up to try and fathom this unseemly double standard when it comes to Israel by asking things like \u201cWhere are the demonstrations against the systematic rape and butchering of Yazidi in Iraq?\u201d<\/em> or \u201cWhy the silence when 180,000 have been slaughtered in Syria?\u201d<\/em> and \u201cHow about the deafening silence surrounding the children who are still the primary victims of Boko Haram in Nigeria and South Sudan\u201d?<\/em> Etc etc… You get the picture right!<\/p>\n

So clearly, this hatred of Jews is not based on any humanitarian grounds.<\/p>\n

And as painful as it is to deal with, the reason anti-Semitism exists is actually really very simple to understand.<\/p>\n

Were the Yazidi, Kurds, Syrians or Nigerians ‘chosen’ to be a ‘Light unto the Nations’?<\/p>\n

Indeed He says,<\/strong><\/em>
\n \u2018It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant<\/strong><\/em>
\n To raise up the tribes of Jacob,<\/strong><\/em>
\n And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;<\/strong><\/em>
\n I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles,<\/strong><\/em>
\n That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.\u2019\u201d (Isaiah 49:6)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Nations of the world, for the most part \u2018live\u2019 in (Spiritual) darkness, who (to varying degrees) know there are a people \u2018Chosen\u2019 to be a \u2018light unto the Nations\u2019 \u2013 a reflection of God\u2019s pure light.<\/p>\n

\u201cThus says the Lord of hosts: \u2018In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, \u201cLet us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.\u201d\u2019\u201d (Zechariah 8:23)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Escalating almost in parallel during the conflict, we were all stirred by biased TV news stations to the alarming rise in anti-Semitism taking hold once again across Europe. Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky warned as a result “we are seeing the beginning of the end of Jewish history in Europe,”<\/em> continuing he said “Never in the history of the State of Israel has there been a Jewish community in the free world that has sent such a large proportion of its Jews to Israel.”<\/em><\/p>\n

For behold, the days are coming,\u2019 says the Lord, \u2018that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,\u2019 says the Lord. \u2018And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.\u2019\u201d (Jeremiah 3:3)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Scripture is indeed being fulfilled in this generation – But until the Nation of Israel cries out en-mass to our Creator this world\u2019s madness is \u2018bound\u2019 to get a whole lot madder \u2013 Pray the Lord will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

To be continued…
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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By Ian Norton, ‘Welcome to Sderot’ the road sign reads as I enter this battered Southern Israel city just before\u00a0Shabbat. Within a few minutes of arriving, the screaming of an Iron Dome rocket being launched to intercept an\u00a0incoming rocket from Gaza interrupts your heart beat. Then as the rocket gets intercepted and explodes just overhead more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[527],"tags":[368,67,114,148,75,280,369,278,259],"class_list":{"0":"post-2063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-terrorism","8":"tag-defense","9":"tag-gaza","10":"tag-hamas","11":"tag-idf","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-rockets","14":"tag-scripture","15":"tag-sderot","16":"tag-terrorism","17":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2063"}],"version-history":[{"count":97,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3513,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063\/revisions\/3513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}