From Gaza to rocket-battered kibbutz

From Gaza to rocket-battered kibbutz

Ynet News - 09:32 , 05.31.07

http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3406895,00.html

Gaza resident Raif Dula refused to leave his wife's side when she was hospitalized in Israel. Now a guest at Kibbutz Mefalsim, he too is under constant Qassam bombardment
Matan Tzuri

In the first days of the increased Qassam rocket attacks from Gaza, the IDF targeted a building operated by Hamas, killing several people and wounding others.

 

Among those wounded were Raif Dula and his wife Amal, who was seriously wounded and eventually evacuated to an Israeli hospital in Ashkelon for intensive treatment.

 

Barrages Continue

Qassams hit Negev, IAF strikes in Gaza / Shmulik Hadad Rocket fire continues Thursday morning. Two Qassams hit open areas in southern community, one of them starting fire; no injuries reported. Moments later, Air Force attacks two Qassam launching machines in northern Gaza Strip Full story

But Raif, who himself sustained a leg wound in the attack, refused to leave her there alone and sought to stay by her side in Israel.

 

Years ago Raif used to work as an electrician at Kibbutz Mefalsim, located just south of the city of Sderot and like all communities neighboring Gaza, a daily victim of Qassam attacks.

 

Raif contacted the kibbutz and Sha'ar Hanegev council chairman Alon Shuster and asked for their help in obtaining a permit to stay. Remembering his history with them, the kibbutz made a collective effort to help Raif and secured the necessary authorizations for him from the State.

 

Now when he's not in the hospital Raif comes back to the kibbutz where he is staying with Rachel and Hanan Brouda, members of the kibbutz's founding generation who volunteered to serve as Raif's "adoptive family" during his stay.

 

"I dream that one day there will be peace and then I can come back to Israel and spend time with my friends, like it used to be," said Raif.

Surrendering its honor - Pollard, Israël en de USA

Pollard, Israel en de Verenigde Staten

30.05.2007

 

Er zijn mensen die spreken over Amerika als de 'Zionist Occupied Government' (ZOG), die menen dat Amerika niet zijn eigen belangen behartigt, maar die van Israël, dit alles vanwege de machtige en rijke Joodse lobby.
Veel mensen die dat te ver gaat, menen wel dat de Amerikaanse buitenlandse politiek teveel door Israëls belangen wordt bepaald, en Israël zich meer kan permitteren dan welk ander land dan ook vanwege de onconditionele steun van de VS.


De realiteit is anders. De VS heeft Israël meermaals onder druk gezet, bijvoorbeeld om na de start van de tweede intifada niet op de vele zelfmoordaanslagen te reageren. Het duurde anderhalf jaar voordat Israël door herbezetting van de Westelijke Jordaanoever het aantal aanslagen drastisch kon beperken. De aanslagen op de Twin Towers en de onderschepping van een uit Iran afkomstig illegaal schip met wapens bestemd voor de Palestijnse Autoriteit veranderde de visie van de VS op zowel aanslagen als de betrouwbaarheid van Arafat. Het was de VS die aandrong op deelname van Hamas aan de verkiezingen, wat tegen de Oslo Akkoorden indruiste, waarin expliciet gesteld wordt dat racistische en gewelddadige partijen van de Palestijnse verkiezingen zijn uitgesloten. Dit is logisch, want de Palestijnse Autoriteit is tijdens het Oslo vredesproces gecreëerd om vrede met Israël te sluiten. Hamas heeft altijd gezegd tegen vrede te zijn en beschouwt onderhandelingen als tijdverspilling. De VS drong ook aan op de eenzijdige terugtrekking uit Gaza twee jaar geleden, en weerhoudt Israël de laatste jaren van onderhandelingen met Syrië. Terwijl de VS wapens verkopen aan Egypte en Saoedi-Arabië, heeft ze Israël verboden wapens te verkopen aan China.

Ik wil hier niet betogen dat Israël een veel hardere lijn had verkozen als de VS dit niet hadden verboden, maar dat op zijn minst een deel van deze zaken niet door Washington besloten moeten worden maar door Israël zelf. En dat Israël niet onevenredig veel macht heeft, hooguit onevenredig veel aandacht.

Het laatste voorbeeld zijn de opmerkingen van VS ambassadeur Jones over de Israëlische spion Jonathan Pollard (zie artikel hieronder), die een levenslange gevangenisstraf uitzit in de VS vanwege spionage. De hele zaak Pollard laat een andere kant van de relatie tussen Israël en de VS zien.
(Lees ook The United States Mandate for Palestine.)

Ratna Pelle

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Surrendering its honor

By Yossi Melman - Haaretz - May 25, 2007
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/863016.html

Any self-respecting country would have summoned the U.S. ambassador to the Foreign Ministry and demanded that he clarify his harsh statement that the fact that Jonathan Pollard, an American citizen sentenced to life for spying for Israel, has not been executed should be seen as an act of clemency.

But Israel is a country that has long ago stopped respecting its own sovereignty, given up its independence of thought and subordinated its will to that of Washington. Israel refuses to respond to Syria's offer of negotiations for fear of incurring the wrath of the American administration. It has submitted to the American dictate and established a special unit within the Defense Ministry to monitor security exports, solely because the United States demanded it. And these are only two examples among many in the last few years that indicate the obsequiousness of Israel's political and security leadership before the Washington nobleman.

In light of this, Jerusalem's stammered response to Ambassador Richard Jones' intolerable remark is not surprising. "The fact that he wasn't executed is the mercy that Jonathan Pollard will receive," said the U.S. envoy to Israel. In other words, Pollard, his family and the Israeli government, which controlled his espionage, should be thankful for the "light" sentence he received.

Jonathan Pollard was a civilian intelligence analyst for the U.S. Navy when he sold his country's secrets for money to his handlers in Israel. He betrayed his country. There is no dispute over that. Twenty-one years ago, he was given the heavy sentence of life imprisonment.

The Israeli government does not just have a moral responsibility for the fate of its agent. It also contributed significantly to the fact that he's rotting in prison. It began with the hasty decision of Elyakim Rubinstein - then the political attachי at the Israeli Embassy in Washington and now a Supreme Court justice - to remove Pollard from the embassy grounds, where he was seeking asylum. He could have been brought in, as the Americans held Soviet citizens in their embassy in Moscow when they sought political asylum. One could have argued that according to the Law of Return, he's an Israeli citizen - in addition to which his handlers had already secretly given him an Israeli passport. It could be that Israel would ultimately have been forced to surrender Pollard, but that should have been done in exchange for an assurance that his sentence would be reduced.

Even after Pollard was handed over in such a shameful way and arrested, Israel could still have helped get him a lighter sentence - for instance, by setting it as a condition for Israeli participation in the investigation. Israel unconditionally provided the United States with the thousands of documents it received from him, thereby helping to incriminate him, without receiving anything in exchange. Even later, Israeli leaders and heads of the intelligence community did not really go out of their way to lobby the American government institutions and intelligence agencies for a pardon for Pollard.

The only one who almost achieved this was Benjamin Netanyahu, during his tenure as prime minister. In 1998, during the peace talks held at the Wye Plantation in Maryland, Netanyahu insisted that Pollard be released as part of the deal with the Palestinians. The U.S. president at the time, Bill Clinton, leaned toward agreeing to do so, but the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, George Tenet, brought all his weight to bear against it, threatening to resign, and Clinton backed off.

Pollard is not the only American citizen since 1980 who has been accused of espionage and given an extended sentence, but the others were despicable ones who caused far more damage to the American national interest. For instance, CIA agent Aldrich Aimes' treachery allowed the Soviet Union to discover the identities of agents working for the United States and execute them. But Pollard is the only one to whom the Americans are so hostile.

It could be because Pollard spied for a friendly country, making his act a more stinging affront. Nonetheless, it's difficult to accept or understand the American lust for revenge when it comes to Pollard. There's something irrational about it. Jones' remarks were rude and bereft of diplomatic tact, reflecting this American pathology that aspires to keep Pollard from ever being pardoned. Even though Jones has apologized, he deserves to be denounced. By essentially ignoring his comments, Israel is adding insult to the injury it has already done Pollard.

Zesdaagse Oorlog: 'Verschrikkelijk gevoel van onheil'

De Volkskrant

- http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/article429838.ece/Verschrikkelijk_gevoel_van_onheil

Gepubliceerd 2:46 29 mei 2007

'Verschrikkelijk gevoel van onheil'

Interview  Van onze verslaggeefster Marjan van den Berg

'In 1967 was ik 13, een overdreven gevoelige puber. Het gevoel overheerste dat alles op instorten stond.'

Wat kunt u zich nog herinneren van de Zesdaagse Oorlog?

'Ik was 13 en zat op het Stedelijk Gymnasium in Den Bosch. Ik was zo'n overdreven gevoelige puber, en ik voelde me daar niet thuis. Dat werd nog eens versterkt door het verschrikkelijke gevoel van onheil dat die oorlog met zich meebracht. Want het werd me wel duidelijk dat de anderen op school er helemaal niet mee bezig waren.

'Voorzover ik me kan herinneren werd er niet over gesproken in de klas. Thuis wel. Mijn moeder was nog aan het herstellen van de dood van mijn vader. Bij elkaar genomen overheerste het gevoel dat alles op instorten stond.'

Hoe zou u het Israëlgevoel omschrijven?

'Als een heel diep sentiment. Bij nader inzien trouwens ook een melodramatisch sentiment. Het idee leefde dat Israël er alleen voor stond en de overmacht van de omliggende landen niet aan zou kunnen. Zo sterk, die dreiging, dat het bijna iets apocalyptisch kreeg.'

Bestaat het Israëlgevoel nog?

'Nee, zeker niet. De Libanon-crisis van 1982 betekende voor velen een enorme terugval. Vooral de bloedbaden die werden aangericht in de vluchtelingenkampen Sabra en Chatila. De beelden, de berichtgeving – die waren zó verschrikkelijk voor de publieke opinie.

'Naar mijn idee was dat een scherpe omkering in het Israëlgevoel, dat toch al iets kunstmatigs had en daarmee heel makkelijk kon omslaan.'

Wat zijn de verschillen met toen en nu?

'Nu is er bijna opluchting dat men van die oude liefde af is: eindelijk kan men zonder die ballast van de Tweede Wereldoorlog Israël bekritiseren. Dat heeft wel iets gezonds. Voor 1982 was er een overdreven liefde en bewondering.

'Het Israëlgevoel was toch ook irreëel en gevoed door schaamte. Ik kan het niet anders omschrijven. Schaamte én bewondering. Want het was natuurlijk ook wel een prestatie, wat daar gebeurde: er werd een land opgebouwd.

'Vroeger hadden we thuis fotoboeken, en die bepaalden voor mij het beeld: hardwerkende pioniers op het land, jonge mensen in korte broeken die sinaasappels plukten. Voor mij persoonlijk zit er een hele bibliotheek tussen toen en nu. Op mijn dertiende was ik nog niet in Israël geweest, nu natuurlijk wel.'

Is er veel veranderd in de houding van de Nederlander tegenover Israël?

'Ik vind dat er in Nederland een te kritische houding ten opzichte van Israël bestaat. Almaar meer voorwaarden worden er aan het land gesteld.

'Ik vind dat daarmee de context wordt ontkend. Het is toch een Midden-Oosters land, en het gedraagt zich, ondanks de bezettingen, nog redelijk netjes, gezien de verhoudingen.

'Israël is zich noodgedwongen steeds meer als een militaire macht gaan gedragen. Het is duidelijk dat ik daar meer begrip voor heb dan veel andere Nederlanders.

'Misschien dat er in Nederland de komende decennia wat meer nuchterheid voor in de plaats komt. Al is het moeilijk nuchter naar dat land te kijken.'

Palestine Unravels

Professor Hussein Solomon lectures in the Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria where he is also Director of the Centre for International Political Studies (CiPS). In the following article he discusses the current Palestinian situation and the viability of a Palestinian state.
_____________________________________

Palestine Unravels
05/28/2007
University of Pretoria Centre for International Political Studies (CIPS)
No. 31/2007
Palestine Unravels
By Hussein Solomon

Months of lawlessness on the streets of Gaza prompted Palestinian President Abbas, on 13 May 2007, to station thousands of troops on the streets. Hamas viewed this as a provocation as it was not consulted. What followed was a week of fighting between militants from rivals Hamas and Fatah, in which at least 50 Palestinians were killed whilst scores of others were wounded.

The fact that the fighting started despite the existence of a Unity Government and despite the fact that various political leaders called for an end to the violence raises several important questions. How much control does the political leadership of either Hamas or Fatah have over their fighting men? Not so long ago, for instance, Prime Minister Ismail Haniya had asked his Hamas fighters not to fire rockets into Israel and they simply ignored his call. The fact that independent Palestinian Interior Minister, Hani al-Qawasmeh, resigned because neither Hamas nor Fatah fighters were willing to listen to him, should give one further cause for concern. The fighting also raises important questions as to whether the alternative political visions between Hamas and Fatah can be bridged through a Unity Government.

At the heart of these questions is the fate of the Palestinian Authority itself. Will it collapse? Under the failure of Palestinian leadership, Palestinians like Ali Jarbawi of Birzeit University say it would be better to end the fiction of a Palestinian Authority. Such a scenario, of course, would be the death knell of the peace process. As Steven Erlanger notes, "How would any Israeli government consider pulling out of the West Bank -- as it pulled out of Gaza-- with no authority to whom to hand the territory?" Under the circumstances the Jordanians are considering some form of stewardship over the West Bank, whilst there are hopes that Egypt would do the same for Gaza.

 

Continued at: http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000589.htm

 

Gaza baby treated at Israeli hospital

Terwijl een Israëlische vrouw zojuist was gedood door een Qassam raket, werd een Palestijnse baby voor behandeling in een Israëlisch ziekenhuis opgenomen. Dit is niet ongewoon:

Dr Mishali said that an average of three Palestinian babies with heart defects arrive at his department every week: "We have daily communications by phone and fax with doctors in Gaza. There is no heart surgeon in the Strip, so they transfer all of these children, and there are many, to be operated on here."

The Palestinian Authority usually covers half of the expenses and the rest is generally covered by donations raised by the hospital.

"Our treatment has not changed over the last few days. This cooperation has survived difficult times of terrorism and bombings," Mishali said and stressed that politics always stay outside the operating theater.
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Gaza baby treated at Israeli hospital
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3405293,00.html

MDA ambulance transfers baby with heart defect from Gaza Strip to Sheba Medical Center for life-saving operation

Meital Yasur-Beit Or Published:  05.28.07, 00:51 / Israel News


A Magen David Adom ambulance transferred an eight-day-old Palestinian baby from Gaza to the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer Sunday evening.

This humanitarian act took place during one of the more difficult days in terms of Qassam launchings, during which a 36-year-old Oshri Oz was killed in Sderot

The baby suffers from a congenital heart defect and without proper treatment will not survive long. He was transferred to the Erez crossing, where an MDA ambulance was waiting to transfer him to hospital ventilated and in an incubator.


"We transfer patients from the Gaza Strip under fire on a daily basis," said Moshe Vaknin, deputy manager of Lachish region of MDA. "Last week, our medics continued to treat a patient while shells were fired at the terminal at Erez. During the Shavuot holiday we evacuated another baby in an incubator, endangering our staff."

The baby is now hospitalized at the intensive care department at the Safra Children's Hospital at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.



'No politics involved'

Dr Dudi Mishali, head of the Department of Pediatric & Congenital Cardiothoracic Surgery at the hospital, said: "The baby has a complete occlusion of his aorta. This is a severe defect, and if the child is not operated on as soon as possible he could die within a day.

'He will probably be operated on tomorrow (Monday) and the prognosis is good. He is currently on medication that is keeping him alive," he added.

Dr Mishali said that an average of three Palestinian babies with heart defects arrive at his department every week: "We have daily communications by phone and fax with doctors in Gaza. There is no heart surgeon in the Strip, so they transfer all of these children, and there are many, to be operated on here."

The Palestinian Authority usually covers half of the expenses and the rest is generally covered by donations raised by the hospital.

"Our treatment has not changed over the last few days. This cooperation has survived difficult times of terrorism and bombings," Mishali said and stressed that politics always stay outside the operating theater.

Hamas: rockets will reach the Zionist settlers in the 1948-occupied coastal city of Asqlan

Berichten van de website van Ezzedeen Al Qassam, de militaire vleugel van Hamas, geven een betrouwbaardere indruk van waar de Hamas voor staat dan de commentaren van westerse deskundologen wat betreft het Midden-Oosten.

Ezzedeen Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas Movement, has threatened that its rockets will reach the Zionist settlers in the 1948-occupied coastal city of Asqlan [Ashkelon] and areas beyond in retaliation to the intensive and relentless occupation forces troops bombarding of Palestinian homes in Gaza Strip.


Abu Obayda: Areas beyond Asqlan must be prepared for new round of Qassam rockets
Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas) Website 23 May 2007
www.alqassam.ps/english/?action=showdetail&fid=500

Ezzedeen Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas Movement, has threatened that its rockets will reach the Zionist settlers in the 1948-occupied coastal city of Asqlan and areas beyond in retaliation to the intensive and relentless occupation forces troops bombarding of Palestinian homes in Gaza Strip.

The threats came apparently after the Brigades fired a salvo of its homemade Qassam rockets at the Zionist settlements around Gaza strip. According to the Zionist medical sources, the rockets killed a settler and seriously injured another settler in addition to 20 others treated for shocks.

Tens of Palestinian citizens, including children and women, were martyred and dozens others were wounded, many in critical condition, due to the incessant occupation forces land and aerial shelling of populated Palestinian areas in the tiny Gaza Strip since Saturday.

Ezzedeen Al Qassam Brigades asserted that the shelling of Sderot was only an initial reprisal to the occupation forces war crimes in Gaza Strip, underling that Asqlan and areas beyond it must brace for new round of Palestinian missile attacks.

Over the past 11 months, Al Qassam Brigades along with other armed wings of the Palestinian resistance heeded a request from PA chief Mahmoud Abbas urging calm; yet, facts on the ground proved that the occupation forces troops hadn't reciprocated the truce even for a single day as they continued killing, wounding, and arresting Palestinian citizens in the West Bank.

Palestinians prepare female suicide bombers to retaliate to Israeli aggression in Gaza

Is dit feminisme volgens Islamitische Jihad?
Het gevolg is uiteraard dat ook vrouwen steeds strenger gecontroleerd worden bij checkpoints, en moeilijker toestemming zullen krijgen om te reizen.
________________________________________
Palestinian militant groups prepare dozens of female suicide bombers to retaliate to Israeli aggression in Gaza
Date: 20 / 05 / 2007  Time:  11:12
www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=22184

Bethlehem - Ma'an - An eminent field leader of the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed group affiliated to the Islamic Jihad movement, on Sunday warned the Israeli occupation of committing any "folly" in the Gaza Strip.

In a press release that Ma'an received, the Al-Quds Brigades' leader said, "The Israeli threats to conduct a major ground operation in Gaza Strip will not achieve any of the goals which the occupation claims to seek."

He affirmed that all the military wings of the Palestinian resistance are ready to counter any expected aggression in the Gaza Strip.

The leader revealed that the Islamic Jihad-affiliated Al-Quds Brigades have prepared dozens of female fighters "ready to undertake operations and to blow themselves up at Israeli troops".

The brigades' electronic website published pictures of Palestinian women willing to blow themselves up.

One woman said, "I wish to be the first woman to blow myself after the next Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip."

The Gaza Strip has witnessed four operations of this kind. The first was on the 14th of January 2004 when the Hamas-affiliated Al Qassam Brigades woman, Reem Riashi, blew herself up in the Israeli intelligence room at Beit Hanoun crossing, killing four soldiers and injuring many.

The second operation was on the 21st March 2004 when Sana' Qdeih also from the Qassam Brigades detonated an explosive belt near a group of Israeli troops who had penetrated into the east of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

The third operation was on the 6th of November 2006; an Al-Quds Brigades woman, Mervat Mas'ood, blew herself up by Israeli soldiers in Beit Hanoun.

In November 2006, Fatima Najjar from Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, who became famous as 'the mother of women fighters', committed a suicide bombing in the presence of a group of Israeli soldiers, east of Jabalia.

Malaysian PM derides West on Islam, Mideast

Malaysian PM derides West on Islam, Mideast
Posted: 22 May 2007 1513 hrs
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/277647/1/.html

TOKYO: Malaysia's prime minister on Tuesday accused Westerners of prejudice against the Islamic world and said Western support for Israel was the biggest reason fuelling Muslim hostility.

"Much of the prejudice against Islam in the West stems from a lack of understanding of the true nature of Islam as a religion professed by 1.4 billion people in the world," Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said.

"Westerners tend to view other peoples and other cultures only from the perspective of Western benchmarks and philosophy," he said as he received an honorary degree at Tokyo's Meiji University.

But Abdullah also denied that history was to blame for current tensions between Islamic and Western societies.

"Explanation is to be found in more recent times, which is the repeated use of force or other machinations by the powerful over the weak, to secure political, strategic or territorial gains," he said.

He said the most urgent problem was the Middle East and criticised Israel for its deadly air strikes, which the Jewish state launched last week on the Gaza Strip in response to rocket attacks on its territory.

The world "must accept the fact that a festering Palestinian problem, among all factors, is the single most important factor perpetuating the tension between the West in general and the Muslim world as a whole," he said.

"We must accept the fact that the plight of the Palestinians has come to epitomise everything that is unjust and unfair to the treatment of peoples," he said.

He said the Islamic world perceived Western nations as defending "Judeo-Christian tradition against the spread of radical militant Islam, thus legitimising all of Israel's actions no matter how brutal," he said.

"When you add to this the invasion of Afghanistan, the conquest of Iraq, the aggression against Lebanon, and the continuing occupation of the Golan Heights, the Muslim world sees a ... complicity," he said.

"The feeling of being humiliated," he said, "has transformed into hostility."

Abdullah is usually seen as more soft-spoken than his predecessor Mahathir Mohamad, who is known for his tirades against the West and Israel.

- AFP/so

Palestinians want government to resign

Poll: Palestinians want gov't to resign
Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST May. 26, 2007
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1178708686342&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

A majority of Palestinians would like the unity government of Fatah and Hamas to resign, and would prefer new elections despite having little faith in either party, according to a poll released Saturday.

Some 60 percent demanded the government resign, and 50 percent said Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas should call for early presidential and legislative elections.

The survey was conducted by the independent polling company Neareast Consulting. It included 800 respondents and had a margin of error of 3.45 percent.

Abbas earned higher marks (59 percent support) than PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas (41 percent), but 45 percent of Palestinians said there was no Palestinian personality capable of leading, with 52 percent saying they didn't trust any faction.

"Palestinians are living in a leadership crisis," said pollster Jamil Rabah. "They think the leadership of the factions aren't capable of curbing their individuals, who they think are the main cause of the infighting ... they think the government is incapable of governing and solving problems."

The poll comes amidst Hamas and Fatah infighting which has killed nearly 50 people in Gaza this month.

Hamas figure: Fight the Jews 'til last of them leaves Palestine

Last update - 11:58 21/05/2007  

Hamas figure: Fight the Jews 'til last of them leaves Palestine

By Haaretz Service
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/861984.html

A senior Hamas figure in Gaza was quoted Monday as urging Palestinian factions to "continue to fight the Jews until the last of them is gone from Palestine."

In an interview with Hamas Television quoted on Israel Radio, Nizar Riyan, a leading member of the Islamic group's political wing, said:

"It is a definite decision within the organization that Israel will be removed from the map, to be replaced by a Palestinian state."

Riyan was also quoted as urging armed Palestinian factions to "Shell Ashkelon until its residents clear out, as did the residents of Sderot."