How to Defend S'derot

A few days ago, in a very angry mood (two children were brutally murdered by Arab psychotics firing rockets at random in the general direction of an Israeli town, Sderot), I wrote that I feel the Arabs should pay a hundred-to-one. A hundred dead Arabs for every Israeli murdered.

I don't know if I'm still that angry, or wether I simply really feel this way, but it's good to know I'm not alone. Steven Plaut feel this way:

A single Kassam, mortar shell, Katyusha, suicide bomber or large rock used by the PLO or its affiliates in Gaza to attack S'derot will result in the saturation bombing of the entire Gaza Strip. Sharon need not worry, because there will be no Jews or Israeli soldiers there to risk getting hit or to be blamed. If the Gaza Strip is simply emptied of population due to the retaliation shelling, well, that is no worse a consequence than S'derot being emptied out as a result of Oslo cowardice and defeatism.

He makes a long and very valid point before he comes to this conclusion. He shows that Israeli media and politicians are all but indifferent to what happens to the people of Sderot.

Let us emphasize that S'derot is not in the Gaza Strip. It is in pre-1967 Israel, well with the Green Line. It is not a "settlement", unless one considers Tel Aviv and Haifa also to be settlements.

Like me, he also is convinced that unless harshly dealt with, it will not stop with the forced evacuation of Sderot.

There is absolutely no doubt that the moment Sharon's unilateral capitulation to terror is implemented in Gaza next year - when the Jewish "settlers" are expelled, when Jews are prohibited thereafter from entering Gaza, and when not a single Israel soldier will be stationed any longer inside the Gaza Strip - the carnage from the Kassams will escalate enormously. S'derot will simply be emptied out, in the next stage of the Oslo capitulation and appeasement. Ashkelon has already been targeted by Kassam missiles from Gaza and is likely to be the next town down the line to be emptied under PLO fire.

So a hundred-to-one then. Bring on the Qassams. We have Hellfire's a-plenty.