The Rockets Red Glare

No, in Israel, the rockets red glare does not symbolize our freedom. Far from it. With each rocket that pounds into Israel, with each minute the army sits by and watches in frustration, the red glare is a mockery of our freedom, our right to defend ourselves. Yesterday, on a day Israelis hope will be their one day off from the hectic work week, 15 kassem rockets and 26 mortars slammed into our country. Today, it is not even 9:00 in the morning, and already 7 Kassam rockets have exploded in Israel, 3 mortar shells hit our land.

A worker in a green house close to Gaza, working in Israel, on Israeli soil, was injured this morning. On orders from the Home Front, children will not be allowed to play outside today in those areas bordering Gaza.

What should we do? It really is simple and quite absurd that I, a regular citizen, should need to list these things, quite embarrassing really, but what can you do? So here goes, Mr. and Ms. Ministers - here's the plan to make the rockets stop and make the world aware of what is happening:

• The Israeli ambassador to the United Nations should be given a beeper. Each time a missile hits, he should be beeped immediately. By his desk, he should have two large signs "Kassem fired at my country" and "Mortar fired at my country." The minute his beeper vibrates (he should set it to vibrate and not ring in order to not bother the important proceedings), he should immediately raise the sign up high and leave it there for 3 minutes.
• The prime minister's office should have a fax prepared "Gaza fired a rocket at my country" or "Gaza fired a mortar at my country." Each time a rocket or mortar is fired, this fax should be stamped with the current date and time and sent to the leaders of the United States and many European countries. One fax for each rocket; it should be considered wrong to use the same fax for more than one. Of course, this is likely to be time consuming, so budget should be allocated to hiring an individual whose sole job will be to send faxes alerting world leaders what is happening.
• Make it clear that for each rocket we receive - we will respond. Start with power - for each rocket fired at us, cut the power to Gaza for one hour. Pick a number - any number between 1-5 and for each rocket over that amount, Gaza goes dark for two hours.
• Move artillery and tanks close to the border of Gaza and issue a warning. In fact, issue two warnings: stop the rockets or prepare for war and to the civilians, you've stood by and watched while terrorists fired at Israel, now you can stand by and be bombed, or you can leave. Tell the Egyptians to open the borders of Rafiach adn let the civilians out.
• We have foolishly and recklessly released prisoners "in good faith" while waiting for some signal of humanity from our enemies. That makes them ruthless and us stupid. There will be no more early releases. There will be no good faith gestures.

The shame of the Israeli government knows no bounds. Beyond the corruption, beyond the placing of their political futures and parties above the interests of the nation, Kadima's greatest sin is seen in its daily failure to act for the people. We saw this in the north during the Second Lebanon War and we see it daily now.

We have an army second to none in the Middle East. Use it. Let it do what it knows how to do. Stop the rockets or bow your heads in shame and leave it to others. The rocket's red glare streaks through the skies over Israel and causes terror, but it is the cowardly response that sickens and shames the people most of all.