Gaza and Sderot

I just had to link to this article in today's New York Times. In the article, there is mention of the fact that 2000 rockets have been launched by Hamas from the Gaza Strip towards Israel (mostly towards the southern town of Sderot) in 2007, to date. 664 of them landing in Israel. That means that Israelis that live near the Gaza Strip awaken every day wondering if this is another day that they must look for rockets heading their way.

Today, Israel killed a major leader of the rocket launches in the Gaza Strip as he was on his way to launch a missile. It seems to me, from the article, that is was a targeted assassination. (The article calls it a "targeted air strike.") I'm absolutely against assassinations -- but Israel doesn't have the authority to go into Gaza and arrest these leaders and put them on trial for attempted murder of Israeli citizens. What is the solution? There are no easy answers.

In retaliation, Hamas vowed to "unleash a wave of martyr operations." Martyr operations means some poor soul blowing him/herself up in the hopes of disrupting Israeli life and killing as many Israelis as possible.

This is the cycle of violence here that maintains the horrible status quo. They attack us for some sleight (perceived, real, historical, or rhetorical), and then we attack back. So they swear revenge and everyone in Israel lives on heightened alert for a few weeks, and everyone in Gaza starves because Israel closes the borders so no terrorists can come to Israel. And then they attack because we are starving them, and we counter-attack. And during it all, everyone refuses to speak to the other one until the other one will stop inciting violence and killing people. Which neither one is willing to do, so it just goes on.

People in the states get angry at Israel for the security fence, but it's times like these that it comes in very handy.

As for us, we just continue to live our quiet, though busy, lives. It seems that every few weeks someone in Gaza is screaming for our deaths, so it's best just to live life.