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Tuesday, July 3, 2007

A BUFFER ZONE CAN BRING PEACE TO SDEROT

One kilometre east of the northeastern corner of Gaza is the Israeli town of Sderot. Sderot has always been a risky location. The daily barrage of Qassam rockets that Sderot suffers today began long before the unilateral Israeli "disengagement" from Gaza. Israel's ignominious withdrawl from Gaza, far from bringing peace to Israel, has caused far more suffering for Israelis and for non-Israelis. Certainly the withdrawl has made it much easier for Qassams to be launched over the border into Israel.

Adjacent to this post is a link to a wonderful map of Gaza and neighboring Israel. A look via this link shows the pre-existing and inadequate one-kilometre "Oslo Security Perimeter". One can see the outline of the beautiful farms that Israel created in the desert just beyond Gaza.

There are two photos I may at another time succeed in making available by link or post; for the moment I will do my best to describe them. First, imagine a green-colored Qassam rocket stuck nose first into a cratered Sderot street; with it's finned tail sticking up, it calls to mind a potted plant! Second, imagine a long, low pile of spent Qassam rocket shells, piled up like firewood against someone's wall.... The crater in the street may seem like a flowerpot and the green missle almost like a small tree due to the color and fins. But, it is not any kind of tree, nor flower, nor potted plant of any kind. And the spent shells lined up against a wall are not firewood....

Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year the residents of Sderot have no peace and no rest. Israel has it within it's power to make peace and rest possible for Sderot. It is quite simple: create a six-kilometre buffer zone in the northeastern corner of Gaza! Any peace gesture from Israel is taken to be an encouragement to wage war even harder with Israel. So Israel is within it's rights to defend itself. The most simple and obvious defense is to require the residents of northeastern Gaza to relocate southward for failing to prevent various terror groups from launching missles and raids into Israel. Israel can then enforce the buffer zone without harming innocent civilians.

I look forward to reading your e-mails regarding this simple idea, and I intend within these three weeks to establish proper protocols to establish this Foundation as a way to fund a lobby in Israel to work towards implementation of a buffer zone as a matter of policy.