When Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited the rocket-battered city of Sderot this week, he didn't just get an earful from city officials. Olmert visited a school where a fourth-grade girl presented an emotional plea for help.
Orel Levi read aloud a letter she had written to Olmert:
To the Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert,
Hello Prime Minister, I wanted to tell you about the security situation. I suffer a lot because of the Kassams [the type of rocket] and it's hard to live like this. What helps us a lot and strengthens us is prayer and faith in God, when we pray God makes miracles, and the Kassams fall in open areas.
When I walk to school in the morning I'm afraid that “Color Red” [the rocket warning system] will catch me on the way. When I learn I hear “Color Red” and I think, “Where did it fall?” Where are my father and mother, what's happening to my siblings? Then I say “Shir HaMaalot” [The Songs or Psalms of Ascent] and feel much safer.
I love to learn in school, my school is fortified against attacks and whoever needs help and support knows he has someone to go to.
I want to tell you Prime Minister that the Kassams make a scary noise, my legs tremble a lot and my heart beats hard. After each Kassam we go back to learning and keep on going like nothing happened, because that's our reality.
That's how we live, we'll continue to pray and God will help us with our lives. This is our routine and with God's help we will deal with our fears with help from the teachers and our families and everyone who loves us.
Prime Minister help us, it's hard for us, please help us live like every other child in the country.
Palestinians in Gaza have stepped up attacks against Israeli civilians in recent days - eight rockets here, a few mortars there each day while terrorists continue to smuggle weapons into Gaza. According to The Israel Project, terrorists fired more than 210 rockets and mortars in November alone.
Palestinian terrorists have fired nearly 3,000 rockets and mortars at Israel in this year alone, killing four people and wounding about 300. Since Israel withdrew all of its Jewish residents from Gaza in August 2005 Palestinian terrorist groups have fired more than 6,300 rockets and mortars at Israeli civilians, killing 10 and wounding more than 780.
Mayor David Buskila made a political plea to Olmert. “The government must not accept a situation in which children live in fear for eight years. This is unbearable,” he said. “Over the long years of Kassam attacks, many infrastructures have been hit — sidewalks, roads, public parks — with no compensation from the government."
The government is weighing whether it will initiate a military offensive against Hamas rocket launchers in Gaza. So far, the agreed-upon calm is officially ended; economic sanctions have proven futile; and the army has warned that Hamas now has longer-range missiles, thus putting half a million Israelis now in harm's way.
The government has been discussing options for years though with no conclusive solution. Thus Orel's appeal and the "routine" that has developed since rocket fire began in 2001. However, short of completely mowing down Gaza, and thousands of innocent civilians there, no solid solution actually exists.
Orel willl have to keep praying a little longer. Lord, bless her.
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