Scared Sderotis to camp in Tel Aviv

The Qassam rockets' red glare and bloody consequences menace the residents of Sderot, and despite nearly 180 homemade rockets fired in the past week, the spate of militant attacks shows no sign of stopping. That's why a thousand not-so-happy campers from Sderot will trickle into a tent city erected for them in a Tel Aviv park tonight. This is not a government refugee camp, but the brainstorm of the brash Israeli tycoon, Arkady Gaydamak.
The Russian immigrant with deep pockets built a similar camp under canvas last summer, during the war against Hezbollah, when some Sderot residents shifted to his tent city in Nitzanim. Most of the people who live within easy rocket range of the Gaza Strip are Russian or Ethiopian immigrants. One woman was killed by shrapnel on Monday as she walked home to fetch a sweater for her elderly mother.
Israeli officials refused to give Gaydamak a permit when he proposed Jerusalem's Saker Garden to house the refugees, but he has pushed ahead and found a green site on the edge of Tel Aviv. Giving free entry to local water parks might entertain these jumpy children. Their screams of delight will be a change from screams of fear, and a little distraction is welcome. Surely the government aims to tackle the Qassam problem before Oprah Winfrey, the American chat show queen, arrives to dispense hugs and solidarity under the world's spotlight. Olmert better get cracking.

Sirens sound - you know the Drill

Because Israeli officials worried that people in vulnerable attack areas near the Lebanese border or West Bank might panic, Israel's widely heralded nationwide air raid drill at 2 pm did not have quite the expected impact. Media coverage was spotty, but showed that the public could cope with a rain of phony Qassam rockets, a fake gas attack and a staged prison riot. But, most tellingly, in some strategic places intelligence agents warned of actual terror threats, so there was not enough manpower to see through this high profile drill.
Here in Jerusalem, if actual nuclear Armageddon had been unleased, Izzy would have been unable to hear any siren and take precautions against the final flash. Pardon the expression, but that's quite a buzz kill. So was the stalled traffic on Highway number two near Tel Aviv. By all reports, it seemed like the usual traffic jam, not any end of the world scenarios. So the poets are right: when the time is nigh, drill-preparedness or not, it'll end not with a bang, but a whimper, folks.

from Ynet News, Sderot schoolkids are attack-ready