It was widely reported in the press, that Carter asked for forgiveness from the Jews, and I don’t forgive him. The former president, and master of distortions, wrote to JTA: “As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so.”

In order to seek forgiveness, one has to acknowledge the mistakes that one made and resolve to repair the damage caused. If we Jews don’t forgive Carter, God certainly never will. As our tradition teaches — God will only forgive one who has made peace with those that they wronged. And Jimmy, you have a long, long way to go.

Carter’s admission that he has caused the Jewish community harm might work in confession, but doesn’t work with on Yom Kippur, and it doesn’t work with me.

Carter admitted no specific mistakes. He offered no way of repairing the damage caused by his irresponsible accusations.

I personally heard Carter tell an audience of 3k students at UC Irvine, to the applause of the administration and students, that the US Congress was “in the pocket” of the Jews.

How many other college student audiences around the country heard the same accusations? How many books did he publish accusing Israel of things that have no basis in fact? How many times has he appeared on TV demonizing Israel and backing Hamas?

In order for me to forgive Carter he has to admit to his distortions and lies and publicly renounce his books and speeches. Carter needs to return money to anti-Semitic Middle Eastern countries that back his center. He needs to replace Habitat for Humanity with Hadassah. He needs to go on Birthright Israel. He needs to listen to Matisyahu. He needs to watch G-d Cast, read The Forward, spend the winter in Miami. He needs to study Judaism with Rabbi Telushkin, and volunteer for Challah for Hunger. We need to see Jimmy Carter crusading against the humanitarian track record of Hizbollah, Hamas, and Fatah, and doing brunch at Jeff’s Gourmet Sausage on Pico. While he is on this apology tour, he needs to appear at every campus where he defamed Israel, and give speeches urging that Muslim extremist recruiting groups like the MSU and MSA be banned permanently. He needs to learn Hebrew, spend Shabbat at Beit Jewlicious, and sit at David Abitbol’s feet and learn about the expulsion of North African Jews, Sephardic Jewish culture, and eat chumous. And that is just for starters.

There is a perfect venue for this rapprochement to begin with the Jewish community; the perfect place for Carter to ask forgiveness, renounce his former ways, and promise to live a life free from anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel — Jewlicious Festival 6.0.

Friday Night at Jewlicious Jimmy, stand up in front of a hundreds of young Jews, ask forgiveness, break bread with us, and tell us how you will attempt to undo the vast damage you have wrought.

A Palestinian rocket exploded right outside a Sderot supermarket on Wednesday evening, December 17, in one of the worst Qassam attacks on Sderot since the ceasefire began. Rocket shrapnel lightly wounded three people, with one man suffering a light head wound, according to a MADA spokesperson on scene.

Fire trucks and ambulances lined outside the supermarket as shattered glass littered the entire area. Nine people including three young women were evacuated to Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon for severe shock.

The Qassam rocket caused heavy damage to at least 15 cars in the parking lot where it had exploded. The smell of serious gas leaks had Sderot firemen hosing the entire parking lot with water in order to prevent any fire.

Inside the supermarket, known as Victory, wine bottles lay shattered upon the floor, as shoppers made their way outside across puddles of wine and broken glass. Rocket shrapnel caused heavy damage to store merchandise, as the glass windows in the supermarket’s front entrance completely shattered.

A worker at Steimetsky Book Store across the street from the supermarket told Sderot Media Center, that she and her co-worker watched the Qassam rocket drop into the parking lot, about five meters away from the supermarket. “We saw the sparks and the smoke, and watched the rocket explode on impact. It was one of the most terrifying sights, I’ve ever seen,” said the worker, a student at Sapir College, who asked not to be named.

Another Sderot local, Shani, who works as a cashier at the Victory supermarket, heard customers yelling Tzeva Adom, and moved away from her cash register seconds before the Qassam rocket hit the parking lot. “The glass exploded everywhere,” Shani told Sderot Media Center. “If I had been standing at the register, I would have been one of those injured in terror attack.”

Over 23 Qassam rockets were fired at Sderot and the western Negev. Seven rockets hit the Eshkol Regional Council earlier in the day, and a mortar shell landed in Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council, causing no reported damages or injuries. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for all the rocket attacks.

Since the ceasefire began on June 21, over 400 Qassam rockets have been fired at Sderot and the western Negev, making the number of rockets fired at Israel during this ceasefire significantly more than the number fired in the previous Hamas-Israel ceasefire in 2007. To date, over 10,000 Palestinian rockets have been fired at southern Israel since 2001.

Photo by Hamutal Ben-Sheetrit, Sderot Media Center

Palestinian Rocket Destroys Sderot Home

It is the day where the Hamas-Israel ceasefire officially comes to an end and the question to whether Palestinian rocket fire will resume on Israelis civilians living in the south, will officially be answered.

The question has been answered–to some degree–a little earlier than expected. After Israel entered the Gaza Strip to blow up a Hamas dug tunnel intended for the killing or kidnapping of Israeli soldiers, Hamas fired a massive barrage of rockets-over 60–upon Israeli civilians through November 4-5.
Several more Palestinian rockets were fired at Israel throughout the past week, with a barrage of Qassam rockets fired at Sderot and the Eshkol region on Sunday, November 16 and Monday, November 17. The ceasefire to this effect has been violated, two and a half weeks into November, more than 80 times by Hamas with the firing of over 80 Qassam and mortar rockets at Israelis civilians living in the Negev.

Hamas’s Ceasefire Violations

But the firing of Qassam and mortar rockets are not the only violations carried out by Hamas during the course of this ‘ceasefire.’ While bomb shelters and other forms of protection have emerged alongside Sderot homes and playgrounds, Hamas has engaged and supported the rearming of its army, production of rockets, smuggling money through tunnels, and training its soldiers for combat and abducting hostages.

It is clear that on Hamas’s end, the aftermath of the ‘ceasefire’ is one that entails the continued terrorizing of Israeli civilians in Sderot and the western Negev.

As early as July 2008, a month into the ceasefire, Palestinian terrorists continued producing rockets and conducted training exercises for newly recruited militants. In a rare video obtained by Reuters back in July, Palestinian militants of the Popular Resistance Committee (PRC) are shown preparing and stockpiling rockets for future use against Israel. The video shows masked Palestinian gunmen stirring explosive material against the backdrop of newly made rockets.

The Reuters video further portrays Palestinian militants, known as the Gaza Qassam Brigades, in field combat exercises, training to use machine guns, grenades and snipers.

According to the IICC, Hamas has thousands of rockets in stock, ready to be fired at Israel ’s Negev cities and communities.

In another video, released also in July by Hamas and reported on by Haaretz, Hamas operatives are seen participating in advanced military training exercises in the southern Gaza Strip, the area in which the Gush Katif settlement block was located before Israel’s 2005 disengagement from the area. The Palestinian militants are seen practicing military maneuvers learned in combat training in Iran.
In addition to training Palestinian soldiers, Hamas invested its energies during the ceasefire to train young Palestinian children to hate Israel and the United States in a special parliamentary summer camp. According to Haaretz, the summer camp’s main objective was to train these young Palestinian children to become future militants.

Palestinian women in Gaza were also not forgotten. Dozens of women in the Gaza Strip also underwent military training, primarily in combat and suicide missions. During the ceasefire, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad allowed a Lebanese TV correspondent to film and interview women terrorists. According to the IICC, the women are trained for both offensive and defensive maneuvers. On a defensive scale, these Palestinian women are trained to fire small arms, launch rockets throw grenades, and attack IDF soldiers, as well as blow themselves up near IDF soldiers using explosive belts.

In the past, Hamas, the PIJ and Fatah have used women to carry out suicide bombing attacks in Israeli territories and attack IDF soldiers during operations in the Gaza Strip.

In August, PRC operatives invited CNN and other network reporters to Gaza, for an exclusive video interview and photo-op of the progress made in their ongoing rocket production. The PRC presented a new advanced form of rockets called Nasser-4, which can travel up to 16 miles ( 25 kilometers ). The extended distance enables the rockets to reach Ashkelon, which has a population of 120,000 and Ashdod, which has a population of 200,000.

The PRC also revealed in the video, Palestinian operatives training to conduct raids on Israeli army bases and capturing Israeli soldiers. Indeed, the PRC was one of the Palestinian terror organizations behind the abduction of Gilad Schalit two years ago.

While international community may not consider these videos as blatant evidence for serious ceasefire violations, the videos do make it clear that Hamas and other Palestinian terror networks are continuing to construe a terrifying reality for Israeli children and families living along the Gaza border, and as far away as Ashkelon and Ashdod.

SO will Palestinian rocket fire resume on Sderot after December 19? It is a reality which Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups have been preparing for since the ceasefire began. These terrorist groups have had no qualms in making their preparations publicly known to the international world and Israel. After all, it is the children of Sderot and the Negev, not the politicians and Israeli Knesset members, who are forced to wait until the rocket fire resumes again.

Since early November, residents of Sderot and the western Negev have been awaken almost every morning to the sound of the Red Alert siren followed by a rocket explosion between two o’clock to three o’clock in the morning. These Palestinian groups are simply offering Sderot residents a taste of what is to come, and at the same time aiming to recondition Negev Israelis to life under sirens and rocket explosions.

Unfortunately, it is only a matter of time before Palestinian rocket fire becomes part of the daily and nightly routine of Sderot and western Negev residents. Hamas and other Palestinian terror networks have made it clear that they will strike Israeli civilians with massive Qassam and mortar rocket attacks, when it strategically suits them to do so.
Visit www.sderotmedia.com for the latest videos of Sderot.