While security personnel for the president were adamantly opposed to his decision to visit Sderot, President Shimon Peres insisted, feeling a need to travel south to identify with the rocket-stricken residents, to share Chanukah with them during this difficult period.

“In Gaza they are lighting rockets and in Sderot we are lighting candles. In Gaza they bring darkness and here, we bring light,” were the words uttered by the president as he lit the Chanukah menorah.

The president took part in a ceremony launching a new Osem factory in Sderot, telling participants “I am proud of residents. I cannot think of another place in the world where residents are hit with rockets but they remain unyielding in their determination to light Chanukah candles.”

During the lighting ceremony in a community center the president stated, “You cannot understand just how much pride you bring to us all”.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)