Truth be said, the weather seemed to be a deterrent, unseasonably hot and dry, but we decided that we planned to head to Sderot to get a feel for things on day one of the ceasefire, and we did just that.

Accompanying me was Mordechai Cohen, driver and guide, who also is the director of a wonderful organization, Connections Israel LINK. I will add that this is a wonderful grassroots organization that has two goals, assisting residents of the Greater Sderot Area and victims of terror by connecting them via educational programs with supporters abroad and the same for IDF soldiers. No politics, and it is that simple, bringing programs of mutual interest to the supporters and those who receive the assistance.

Anyway, my wife Sharon, who does work with Connections Israel came along too, as did a volunteer, Diane Cudo.

In just an hour we pulled into Sderot, crossing the Bruchim HaBo’im sign into what always appears to be a tranquil suburban setting, the kind of place that you would like to raise your children in. We arrived at about 10:00am, four hours into the ceasefire and unfortunately, nothing has changed. The streets were empty and the once vibrant community still more closely resembled a ghost town that a home to 7,000 plus families.

Our first stop was the city’s social services department, where we spoke to social workers and got a peek at the IDF Homefront Command for the area, which shares the location. Unique to this social services center is a special room in the back with beds and medical equipment, as this is one of the sites for treatment of people experiencing hysteria as a result of the situation. Interestingly, there was also a parking lot, not for cars or trucks, but for bus stops – yes you read correctly, bus stops. All the regular bus stops that were removed, replaced with Kassam-resistant concrete fortified bus stops were lined up, somehow conveying the sad message that in Sderot, life is not the same as in other cities around Israel.

(Click on image to ENLARGE) Then, off to the police headquarters where we saw the graveyard (excuse the expression) for Kassam rockets. Gives you a small idea of the numbers they are dealing with. The photo shows only some of the Kassam rockets, not mortar shells, not Grad Katyushas, just Kassams. On the tail of the rocks the police bomb demolition technicians writes his name, date of attack, place of impact. There are many kinds, size varieties and other factors, but even the primitive ones dating back almost eight years have one common denominator, they are all quite deadly.

(Click on image to ENLARGE) We then visited a nearby shopping center where I introduced myself to Shosh Cohen, the owner of the Pisga store, which sells household goods and an assorted array of interesting items. She is a longtime native of Sderot, telling us that she prays the ceasefire lasts long enough to bring a customer. She unabashedly escorted us all into her store, well air-conditioned I might add, to show us that everything just remains on shelves gathering dust, painfully adding the days of making a living are long gone, perhaps never to return. As we spoke the woman from the neighboring store entered, Rachel Ben-Yaish, whom we soon learned is Shosh’s sister. She owns the Levis Club store, also explaining how things have deteriorated. At one point, she was unable to hold back the tears and she did an about-face to head into her store and wipe her eyes without doing so in front of her guests.

The two went on to explain that their parents were immigrants from Morocco, settling in Sderot in 1956. As they put it, “we grew with the city, watching it flourish”. Shosh and Rachel know everyone, and they used to make a respectable living but all that is gone.

When I asked how long they expect the ceasefire to last, Shosh stated with an air of confidence, “2 to 3 days at most”, although admitting that she hopes she is wrong and yearns for the day when the shopping center is a hub of activity again.

Stores to her left have gone out of business, and are now rented out to serve as the Sderot Media Center, and a workspace for the many foreign journalists busy typing on their laptops.

The flower shop and nearby barber shop are no longer, and other stores are officially open for business, but their owners prefer to sit together around the table outside and commiserate with one-another.

Shosh explained they are a family of ten children and while they grew up in a modest home, they always had food and were lacking for nothing. Today she explained, she knows people who simply do not have money to buy basic food items, expressing much anger and disdain for the government, which the sisters agree has abandoned them.

Rachel perhaps is the optimist, giving the ceasefire 1-2 weeks. Shosh quickly interjects “they should do to Gaza like they did in Shatila, [making reference to the massacre in the Lebanese village in Sept. 1982] so we have some quiet here.

(Click on image to ENLARGE) We then moved on to nearby City Hall, but the mayor, his assistant and spokesman were all out of the area. Undeterred, Mordechai, who knows his way around town, took us upstairs and we were cleared to walk around. We went to the mayor’s conference room, which displays a backdrop of photos of rocket attack victims, 21 in all.

It is significant to note that with all of its troubles, Sderot is a very low crime city. As a result, coming from Jerusalem where entry into the municipality, as well as every other large store is preceded by a security clearance and/or bag check, in the Sderot office buildings we entered freely with no checks whatsoever.

In City Hall we met with Avi Ochana, whose outward appearance does not reflect a Shomer Shabbos yid, but let me tell you, a lesson in trust and bitachon in Hashem.

He has been living in Sderot his entire life, 46 years, with the exception of 1.5 years on 86 Street and Columbus Avenue in New York City. Avi explained that life in New York was really enjoyable, nice, and his sister hosted him [who by the way still lives there and does quite well according to Avi], but “it’s not Eretz Yisroel” he exclaimed, and “its not Sderot. Sderot is home, my home – a beautiful city where I do not plan to leave!”

Avi volunteers in City Hall, meeting people such as our intimate group, doing what he can to help the cause. He too reflects on the good days, when many of his friends whose photos stare at us were alive. He remembers when visitors and tourists would stop by.

Avi believes the dire security situation is being used to mask other problems, primarily the harsh economic realities, of the Jews and the residents of Gaza. He believes that if life were economically better for Gaza residents, they would have no interest in firing rockets because they would have too much to lose. Interestingly, his opinion in many ways echoes statements made during recent years by President Shimon Peres.

He is angry at his government for transferring enormous sums of money to the PA, Hamas, and Fatah on a regular basis, and this he explains is unbelievable since the money may be used as leverage for many things, first and foremost to obtain the release of Gilad Shalit.

And last but not least, we met Yaki (Yaakov) Cohen, 37, an extremely vibrant young man, a father of 6, who picked up and left Moshav Re’im eight years ago and moved to Sderot. He proudly told me that 2.5 years ago, he and his wife purchased a home and they are working in earnest to bring other young frum families and establish a community.

Yaki is one of those guys who you just know will succeed, undeterred and focused – on a mission.

He works with Connections Israel, Mordechai and others, regularly, and was happy to escort me around for the purpose of this article. We walked to the lookout, from where one gets a real grasp of reality, 1.5-2 kilometers (8/10 -1.2 miles) to Beit Hanoun, northern Hamas-controlled Gaza. The firing of rockets is that simple.

For Yaki, it is quite simple. The Government of Israel has retreated, backed into a corner and “when the terrorists smell weakness, they continue the assault until you are eliminated,” stated Yaki.

He is embarrassed at the chilul Hashem, the fact that the Jewish People are embarrassed and uncertain as to how one must react.

He made an excellent point, that overall, during the past eight years, terrorists rarely fired rockets during the night. Why he asked rhetorically, because they want to drive us to despair, firing during the morning when we awaken and try to get the children ready for school and get going to work – and at night when we return, during dinner and during the family time hours.

We saw the distance, and it is suddenly clear that with such absolute ease, terrorists can strike Sderot, or if they please, as has been the case lately, the Gaza belt communities, Nir Am, Erez, and so forth.

Yaki insisted that we come with him to see a memorial erected to two of the rocket victims, small children, 2 and 4, who were killed on Erev Succos, September 29, 2004. Not planned, but quite potent, the mother of one of the victims ‘happened’ to be standing by the memorial stone, angrily telling us not to take photos. She thought we were foreigners and she painfully said in her Amharic accented Hebrew “all day they come and take pictures. No one helps us. We have no food. Yuval (her 4-year-old son) is gone and no one cares. Also killed was Dorit, 2.

Anyway, Yaki explains that after the levaya and shiva, the religious leaders of the Ethiopian community (Kes) were present, and Yuval’s grandfather was giving the main hesped (eulogy).

He explained that he and his family walked great distances to reach Eretz Yisroel, adding many were not strong enough and died en route. They accepted that as the price they needed to pay to reach the Promised Land. Sadly he remarked, “When we arrived, no one was there, no one waited for us.” Yaki stated he went on to explain that the homes were built and the children were cared for. The army was protecting the nation, and no one needed them.

Now said Yuval’s grandfather proudly, your blood is mixed with the blood of the soldiers, the terror victims, and finally, we belong. We are members of the nation, we are home!

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)