Sderot mayor, residents 'livid' over 'Peres-ona non grata' remarks

Sleepless Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal at press conference last week, with Government Press Office Dir.-Gen. Danny Seaman (Dave Bender)

Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal, who shut down the town this morning in protest over the near-nonstop barrage of Kassam rockets, says he's "livid" over Vice Premier Shimon Peres' remarks to reporters yesterday at the Knesset parliament: "Qassam Shmassam," understood as pretty much telling the battered residents to shut up and suck it in.

Peres, oleogeniously backpedalling in a chat with Israel Army Radio's feisty Razi Barkai, said he'd been misunderstood, and was quoted out of context.

Moyal told an Army Radio interviewer just before the Tuesday, nine AM broadcast: "I, and Sderot's residents are livid over Pere's statements, and I am considering declaring him 'persona non grata.'"

Israeli VP Peres: 'Qassams shmassams' as Sderot goes dark and despairing residents leave (Video)

More and more Kassams are slamming down in Sderot, but Vice Premier Shimon Peres just doesn't "get it" about all the brouhaha: "This hysteria over the Qassams must end," he told journalists at the Knesset. "We're just adding to the hysteria. What happened? Kiryat Shmona was shelled for years. What, there weren't missiles?"

(Just a wee bit, oh, I dunno', insensitive there, Shimmy? Funny, but when I asked exactly that question of Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal at last week's press conference. "Has Sderot become the 'new' Kiryat Shmoneh?" He responded that there was no comparison, since the residents of Kiryat Shmoneh in the Galilee panhandle, one hill over from Lebanon were prepared for the attacks, with safety rooms, bomb shelters, national support, fast IDF reactions and that they had several minutes to prepare - not 10-15 seconds.)

"The vice premier also accused the management of the Israeli side: "Our response is causing the other side to strike. We must carry out a series of steps in order to take out the Qassams. Peres refused to detail which steps he meant."

Ahh, Shimmy, shimmy, ko ko, bop, really now... ya' got the Nobel, got the Peace Center, got the influence, hasn't the time come for the pipe, slippers, trusty dog (or Sonia - your call) at your side, and getting started on those memoirs?

Closer to the maddening crowd: A shoutout to the blogosphere (Image)

Just noticed that I'd gone over the 1,000 visitors mark. Very, very nice, for a few short weeks work, all in all. Thanks to all of you out there who have taken to time to write, link, note, crosspost and, in general, wander around the place, kick the tires, and offer suggestions for futzing with the template and functions.

Just wondering, for those coming here from The Continent and points east, (a big welcome and, do mosey over to the bar, and try the canapes). What gives? France? Belgium? Spain? The UAE? Asia? Whassallthatabout?! Geez', am I flattered... Anyway, Bienvenue! mi casa es su casa, Ahlan wa'sahalan, marhaba!, (etc, fill in your local language or dialect) and all internationally recognized checks, money orders and travelers checks are most welcome, as are Paypal donations whenever I get around to pasting it into the template.

Ahem, I started this blog a few years ago, let it lie domant for a too-long period due to many life changes: jobs, raising triplets, waves of bloody terrorism, wars, train wrecks; I'm sure you all know the drill, right?

And now a shoutout to the crowd: So, ahh, what brings you here?
What kind of podcasts would you like to see more of?
More pics? Video? Local breaking news? Personal "slice of life" stories?

Whatever.

And, not to totally waste bandwidth on my personal yammering, there's great pictoral coverage of the Talk, Walk and Rock with Israel rally over at Solomonia. What about closer to home, you say? Sigh.

Why not go meditate on this, instead (I shot it the evening before a humongeous storm hammered the Netanya shoreline).

And now for something completely different

Just got back from an afternoon visit with AbbaGav.

Damn. Damn, damn, damn. Where have you been all my blogging life?!

He (She? It? Them?) is, apparently, channeling Iowahawk, until someone fiddles with the rabbit-ear antenna, and then it's alt versions The Borowitz Report and/or old episodes of Satirewire.com, with a sprinkling of Onion flakes on top.

Damn, I miss the old NatLampCo. these days. Especially this, and, oh, this, which goes along with this, and certainly, of course, this.

There. That's better.

And now, back to our previously scheduled mayhem.

(Any other ripping good parody out there, people? Let us know in a comment)

Clever Caption Contest: Winner gets to hold the phone (Image)

(Dave Bender)

Clever Caption Contest. Leave a Comment: Winner gets to hold the phone.

Sderot: The 'lucky' corner (Image)

(Dave Bender)

The billboard over the Lotto betting kiosk / "Eli's steakhouse" says, "whose turn is next? and beneath it, "Eli's steakhouse - The Lucky Corner." Some luck, especially for Mayor Eli Moyal, at the municipality, located just to the right of the sign.

I shot this photograph in Sderot last week, during a lull in the Kassam rocket barrage, just after interviewing Moyal, who was by that point, utterly frustrated, and by today, well beyond frustration.

Moyal, has - quite justifiably, I think - called for a total shutdown of the town's services, as well as a host of other sanctions including blockading all roads leading into the town in protest over the lack of government response to the lethal steel rain. Including that of veteran resident, Defense Minister Amir Peretz.

Israel Radio chief: The Arab world's psy-ops media war against Israel (Video)

Israel Broadcasting Authority Director-General & Chief Editor, Yoni Ben-Menachem charges that Arab nations, led by Iran and the Palestinians are engaged in a psy-ops war against Israel, exploiting the world media. Ben-Menachem talks with Dave Bender about possible Israeli countermeasures.

A soldier's story: Behind the scenes with Israeli artillery (update)

(Update: this feature on an IDF artillery reserve unit's field maneuvers was written a few years back, and reflects a "labor of love" as I was mustering out of the unit after 20-years service. With the current controversy over recent events in Gaza, it is intended to show a close-up and personal side of the Israeli army, rarely reported on outside of Israel, and is intended to balance out recent accounts, especially in the UK - DB)

A recent call-up notice from my army unit once again invited me to join up with brothers - in - arms for exercises somewhere among the dramatic wadis in the sprawling southern Negev Desert.

I was asked to drop everything I was doing at the moment, pick up an oily rifle and a heavy tan duffle bag, and spend some quality time practicing for the big one.

The last few days before leaving for reserve duty are busy: Helping spouses plan the coming stint alone; telephone calls to put off meetings and engagements for work; pulling the dusty military gear down from the crawlspace; wondering what flashlight - radio doodad to buy this time, which novel to stash in the big back pocket of the ammunition-clip webbing.

The last evening at home. Pre-departure tension as I sit alone in the living room, an assortment of camping gear and military odds and ends arrayed on the floor around me; like I'd gone on an L.L. Bean ordering binge - the "Mideast conflict clearance sale" edition. And ritually wondering to myself: "Now, why did I agree to do this again?" And knowing all along I'll probably dump about a third of the cargo back out later near the foot of the bed by my annoyed and formerly-sleeping wife, because everything I really wanted to lug along is just too damn heavy to cram into one backpack.

And finally that last night to softly hold each other in the dark before she is temporarily replaced by a lonely, worn sleeping bag and tools of war.

Old Jaffa Port: Seaside Home

(Dave Bender)

Blue Suede Jews: It's not every day you run into Elvis in Jerusalem

Memphis has Graceland. Vegas has impersonators. And Israel - yes, Israel - has the Elvis Inn, a bizarre desert Mecca for Middle East Elvis enthusiasts. It's the Holy Land, people, and the King has risen.

It's not every day you run into Elvis in Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open-air market.

Now, it's not as if I'm some kind of delusional Elvis freak here in the holy city, waving a hand-scrawled sign drawn in black magic markers, babbling on about Mideast war and peace in one breath and Elvis and aliens in the next, but, there I was: noon on Friday and traipsing through the market's bustling main open avenue doing my weekly round of pre-Sabbath shopping when I saw Elvis.

"Shlepping in Memphis," lets call it, grappling with two fistfuls of flimsy plastic bags stretched thin with sweet challahs, peppery Jerusalem kugel, savory hummus and schug, along with the rest of the capital's sweaty humanity eddying around for bargains and baklava, I was making my way home when it happened.

Not ten feet away from a pair of border police officers manning the rickety security portico at the bustling Jaffa Road entrance, as in a vision like so many others — with said visionaries usually gently carted away to the capital's Kfar Shaul mental health facility, unless otherwise elected to the Knesset — there he stood.