The New York JCRC planted a field of some 4,200 balloons across the street from UN headquarters on Thursday, in a display meant to call international attention to the intolerable situation in the Israeli city of Sderot and its surrounding communities.

The red balloons were meant to represent the thousands of rockets, fired from the Gaza Strip, that have struck Sderot since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in September 2005. Sderot and the surrounding area have been under near-constant bombardment, suffering thousands of strikes by Qassam rockets, thousands of mortar shells, and recently an Iranian-made Katyusha (”Grad”) rocket.

The plight of Sderot’s citizens has gone largely unnoticed by the international media — and hence the international community — even as the city absorbs more and more projectiles fired from Gaza. It is hoped that international pressure can help stop the attacks that have damaged homes, hospitals and schools and force children to have class in bomb shelters.

Imagine walking around your kitchen one day, or sitting in math class with all your friends. Imagine hearing a siren throughout town, and knowing you have only seconds to make it to a bomb shelter before a missile strikes. This is life in the Israeli town of Sderot, where more than 8,200 rockets have fallen since 2001. These photos tell the story of the people, their families, and a life interrupted.

President Bush spent a busy three days in Israel last week. He visited with Olmert and Abbas, toured some important sites, and gave a number of key speeches. Here’s one where he discusses new proposals for advancing the peace process.

Watch the video of Bush’s speech here.

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. I’d like to, first, thank Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas for their hospitality during my trip here to the Holy Land. We had very good meetings, and now is the time to make difficult choices.

I underscored to both Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas that progress needs to be made on four parallel tracks. First, both sides need to fulfill their commitments under the road map. Second, the Palestinians need to build their economy and their political and security institutions. And to do that, they need the help of Israel, the region, and the international community. Third, I reiterate my appreciation for the Arab League peace initiative, and I call upon the Arab countries to reach out to Israel, a step that is long overdue.

In addition to these three tracks, both sides are getting down to the business of negotiating. I called upon both leaders to make sure their teams negotiate seriously, starting right now. I strongly supported the decision of the two leaders to continue their regular summit meetings, because they are the ones who can, and must, and — I am convinced — will lead.

I share with these two leaders the vision of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security. Both of these leaders believe that the outcome is in the interest of their peoples and are determined to arrive at a negotiated solution to achieve it.

The point of departure for permanent status negotiations to realize this vision seems clear: There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967. The agreement must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people, just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people. These negotiations must ensure that Israel has secure, recognized, and defensible borders. And they must ensure that the state of Palestine is viable, contiguous, sovereign, and independent.

It is vital that each side understands that satisfying the other’s fundamental objectives is key to a successful agreement. Security for Israel and viability for the Palestinian state are in the mutual interests of both parties.

Continue reading the transcript…

Today’s New York Times finally gives an accurate account of the horrors endured by the people of Sderot. Palestinian terror is the number one obstacle to peace.

From the NYT:

By STEVEN ERLANGER
SDEROT, Israel — Less than two months ago, Raziel Sasson emerged from his rocket-proof closet, willing now to sleep just outside it, with the rest of his family, on mattresses circled on the living room floor. But Razi, 13, still wakes his father up three times a night, afraid to walk alone to the bathroom.

Four years ago, Razi was climbing a tree when a Qassam rocket, fired from nearby Gaza, flew over his head and exploded nearby. He remembers the spinning contrail of the crude rocket and its fierce whistle. The blast blew him eight yards to the ground.

Sderot, a working-class town of mainly North African immigrants less than two miles from Gaza, has been hit over the past four years with some 2,000 rockets of improving range and explosive power — 22 in the last eight days. Eight Sderot civilians have been killed by the rockets; Razi has seen 15 therapists.

“He wouldn’t leave the house to go to school for a year,” said his mother, Shula. One of his older brothers, Rafi, 22, used his army exit pay to build Razi a bomb shelter in the living room, a concrete cocoon with a steel door.

Across the border in Gaza, life is wretched for Palestinians. But as President Bush prepares to arrive in Jerusalem on Wednesday for the first time since taking office, to spur peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian president, he will hear a lot about the Qassams.

For many Israelis, Sderot (pronounced stay-ROTE) embodies the fears of what happens when they pulled back from occupied land, as they did from all of Gaza more than two years ago — it turns into a staging ground for attacks by extremist Palestinians that a peace treaty will not stop.

Israel welcomes US President George Bush on his first presidential
visit, one that will have a bearing on several fundamental issues for
Israel and the entire region. First and foremost, the president will
engage in substantive discussions with Israel’s leaders on the looming
nuclear threat posed by Iran. Secondly, he will seek to advance the new momentum for peace between Israel and the Palestinians that was renewed recently at the Annapolis
Conference.

The findings of the US National Intelligence Estimate that Iran had
paused in its nuclear enrichment program several years ago have not
reduced the Iranian threat today. Iran still poses a strategic threat,
not only to Israel, but to all of Europe, with long-range ballistic
missiles that have placed the entire continent within range. That is why
Iran has twice been sanctioned unanimously by the UN Security Council.
As the NIE report says clearly that Iran is continuing its enrichment
program, the international community must not lower the intensity of its
efforts to block that threat. Israel’s leaders look forward to
discussing with President Bush how best to deal with the Iranian nuclear
menace.

Israel cannot afford to risk the safety of its population on an estimate
that the Iranian nuclear threat has ceased - especially when the
Iranians make a point of announcing almost weekly the development of a
longer-range Shihab ballistic missile, capable of delivering a nuclear
warhead. President Bush’s visit is an opportunity for closer, effective
coordination between the leader of the free world and the only democracy
in the Middle East in facing the dangers posed by a nuclear Iran’s
extremist Islamic ideology.

By David Billet

On the eve of Christmas, an op-ed by Kenneth L. Woodward, the former religion editor and now contributing editor of Newsweek, appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Titled “The Plight of Bethlehem,” it enumerated a number of ways in which the Jewish state imposes hardships on Christians in the Holy Land. According to Woodward, Israel restricts their movement and their access to holy sites; squeezes them economically in cities like Bethlehem; and confiscates their land for its security fence and for Jewish settlements. Woodward closes by reminding Israel that it would be a mistake to “lose” the good will of the dwindling population
of Palestinian Christians, who enjoy “remarkably good” relations with their Muslim neighbors, have long been a moderating force in the area, and in any case “deserve to keep their land and work for peace on earth, goodwill toward men.”

A rousing tale of injustice–but one constructed almost entirely out of bias, falsehood, and demagoguery.

Someone should tell these guys that all you have to do is open the curtains if they need light. What’s most upsetting is the major wire serivces sold this picture as authentic.