Thank you Gaydamak
Gaydamak mirrors our wretchedness; now it's our turn to fix it
Next week the Israel Lands Administration is set to issue a tender for 60 houses in Sderot, in a neighborhood overlooking Beit Hanoun and that has been barraged with quite a few Qassam rockets.
The response to the tender will be the city's true test of resilience and its attractiveness. Yossi Cohen, the mayor's right-hand man, estimates that some 300 families will apply for the bid. "I myself am going to put USD 40,000 as a down payment," he said. "We shall live there, I, my wife and my children."
Sderot's local leadership can't decide what it's heading; is it heading a basically healthy and proud community facing a security problem, or is it heading a terrible, unfortunate community whose residents flee in times of emergency?
Millionaire Arcadi Gaydamak, who sent the residents of Sderot on a short holiday in Eilat over the weekend, placed this dilemma on the national agenda. From this point of view we are all obliged to repeat what the holidaymakers are saying: "Thank you Gaydamak, thank you Gaydamak, thank you."
To date, the Qassam rockets fired on Sderot have taken the lives of six people. One year and 10 months have elapsed between the fifth and sixth fatality. With all due regret, this price tag is not insufferable. It certainly doesn't warrant a mass exodus.
Contrary to the impression created, the State of Israel has invested and is continuing to invest millions into the safety of Sderot. Of Sderot's six primary schools, five have been completely protected against rocket fire and the sixth is partially protected. The kindergartens are all protected. The two high-schools have been temporarily fortified and will soon be rebuilt with full protection.
Buying his way to the top
If we believe the mayor's advisor, the panic that has struck the city is primarily due to the increased noise the Qassam rockets now make. He says this is due to the improved quality of the explosives used. Whatever the reasons, every landing of a Qassam rocket rattles the entire city.
Gaydamak has stepped into this gap. He has stepped into it crudely: He knows no other way. And he didn't hide what he expected in return: A day will come and the ever so grateful Israelis will turn up at the polls, and at least a third of them will vote in favor of his party. His money will lead him to the premiership.
Gaydamak hates it when he is reminded that someone else beat him to this trick: Shmuel Flatto-Sharon. The grateful electorate voted Flatto into the Knesset until the judicial system came to its senses and convicted Flatto of election bribery. It's no wonder that both Flatto and Gaydamak dislike the State Prosecution.
The damage Gaydamak inflicted on Sderot is not negligible: On Thursday, a day after the fatal Qassam landed in Sderot, 70 percent of the city's children turned up for school. On Friday, when the Eilat option surfaced, the schools were empty. So were the streets. The temptation was too great: No one thought about how it would affect the city's morale the day the holiday ends.
Sderot needs security, not vacation
Government offices joined forces to imitate Gaydamak and to offer their own holiday camps. I believe this is a mistake. Sderot needs security, not a holiday camp.
In recent years, substantial funds have been funneled to Sderot by the government, Jewish organizations and by Israeli philanthropists. However, the government is slow, cumbersome and flaccid.
In the south as in the north, it doesn't know how to respond to emergency situations in time; it scrimps on pennies and loses the battle over the residents' trust. It doesn't differ much from the Palestinian Authority that funneled the majority of funds to the Palestinians in the territories, but let Hamas take the credit.
There is a leadership vacuum in Israel, on all levels. People such as Gaydamak can easily infiltrate it, and can do so relatively cheaply. Gaydamak is the mirror through which our wretchedness and that of the State is reflected; it is an insult to Zionism. Thank you Gaydamak, you revealed this, now it's our turn to fix it.
