Arab terrorists in Gaza fired two Grad Katyusha missiles at southern Ashkelon late Wednesday afternoon, and one rocket scored a direct hit on a children's medical clinic inside a shopping center. Parts of the building collapsed, trapping four people for a half-hour.  At least 94 people had been rushed to Barzilai Medical Center by 8:30 p.m., most suffering severe post-traumatic stress reactions.

Jewish woman suffers facial wounds in Ashkelon rocket attack. 14May08
Flash 90

Medics evacuate wounded Israeli from scene of rocket impact. Ashkelon, 14May08.
Flash 90

A spokesman for the local Fire Department stated that the powerful rocket hit the building's 3rd floor and crashed down to the floor below.  He said the firefighters rescued four people - including a little girl - who were trapped behind or under a collapsed wall. The destruction to the building was significant.

Officials examining damage to mall building after Grad attack in Ashkelon
Israel News Photo: Flash90

The shopping center is located in the southern area of the port city.  The rocket hit at approximately 5:50 PM, an hour when the area is generally crowded with shoppers. 

Witnesses said no Color Red incoming rocket alert was sounded. The early warning siren that was supposed to warn Ashkelon residents of an incoming attack was turned off a few days ago after several false alarms had caused panic among residents, military sources told Haaretz. The decision to turn off the system was coordinated with the defense establishment and the political tier, the sources said. 

Four people were critically wounded, Barzilai Medical Center spokeswoman Leah Maloul told Arutz-7's Israel National News, including a 24-year-old mother and her two-year-old baby daughter, both of whom sustained severe head injuries, as well as the doctor who was treating her at the time of the attack, who suffered facial wounds. A fourth person was severely wounded in the stomach. The doctor's assistant was lightly wounded, as were ten others. The remainder who were brought into the emergency room suffered from severe post-traumatic stress reactions, Maloul said.

Evacuating teen girl from Chutzot mall rocket attack scene
Israel News Photo: Flash90

Barzilai's 100-member emergency team, comprised of a signficant number of secreterial and clerical support personnel, was mobilized immediately, she added. "They set up the calling center, all the computers -- it's a lot of work and has to be done quickly." The emergency telephone number at Barzilai Medical Center for families of people hurt in the missile attack on Ashkelon Wednesday is 12-55-171. The number serves English speakers as well as Hebrew speakers.

Family members will also be able to check up on their loved ones at their local hospital, no matter where in the country they are located, due to a unique national computer database called the ADAM system. "Every person who comes into the hospital from a terror attack of any kind is automatically entered into the national ADAM system. All the family member who lives outside the city has to do to check on their relative's condition is walk into their nearest hospital and ask them to look up the person in the ADAM system. They can do that from anywhere in the country," Maloul explained. 

Ashkelon, Israel's 13th largest city with nearly 110,000 people, has come into range of Gaza's rockets over the past year and a half.  Many of the rockets have landed very near the Rotenberg Power Plant, Israel's second-largest electric station, which supplies about a quarter of Israel’s electricity.

The Ashkelon power plant facility can be seen in the distance from Ashkelon's beach.

It is assumed that the afternoon's rocket attacks were timed to coincide with President Bush's visit in Israel.  Analysts increasingly opine that a full-scale Israeli offensive in and against Gaza is likely to begin in a matter of days - or even earlier.

The late Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, who signed the Oslo Accords on behalf of Israel, poo-pooed fears that Ashkelon would be targeted by rockets.  He said in the summer of 1995, "We know all the scare-stories of the Likud. They promised [when the first Oslo agreement was signed, in 1993] that there would be Katyushas from Gaza. It's been a year already that Gaza is mostly under PA control, and there haven't been any Katyushas, and there won't be any... The Likud is simply scared to death of peace - they are 'peace scaredy-cats' - and for this reason is reacting in a truly childish manner."

Click below to hear Rabin [in Hebrew] [audio:123201]:

Click here for other predictions of rockets at Ashkelon, and their rebuttals.  A Jerusalem Post editorial, for instance, in August 1995, stated, "A particularly favored line is that the Likud's dire predictions of Gaza turning into another Lebanon, with Katyusha rockets hitting Ashkelon, have proved unrealistic and plain silly."

The Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) watchdog group has released a report warning that hatred of the United States is a pillar of the Palestinian Authority’s ideology.

As US President George W. Bush lavished praise this week on Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the latter broadcast on the TV station which he controls a stinging message: the US is “the greatest Satan in the world.” --Palestinian Legislative Council Member Najat Abu-Bakr (Fatah), PA TV, March 3, 2008.

The full 30-page PMW report examines statements made in the PA media over the past several years regarding the PA’s affinity for countries such as North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela, which are all openly anti-American.

“Significantly,” the report warns, “the affinity that is felt for such geographically distant non-Muslim countries... is precisely because these states publicly challenge and express loathing for the US.” The report also examined statements showing PA officials’ loathing for the United States, such as a Fatah legislator’s recent claim that the US is “the greatest Satan in the world.”

PMW staff found that the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001 was a frequent theme of anti-American cartoons in PA newspapers. Each year, the papers print cartoons, often on or shortly before September 11, depicting the Muslim world, particularly Iraq and “Palestine,” as the true victims of the attacks. America is depicted as the aggressor.

One frequent subject of praise in the Fatah-controlled media was former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Following Hussein’s execution PA papers referred to him as “the general Shahid [Martyr] leader, Saddam Hussein,” and the Fatah group that currently rules the PA dedicated a terrorist cell to his memory. Schools, streets, and sporting events were named after him, including the main road in the village of Yaabid, which was paid for by USAID.

PA papers and television reports praise terrorist groups fighting the US in Iraq and Hizbullah arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, who until his death was wanted by the United States for the murder of hundreds of US citizens. Researchers found frequent praise for Syria and Iran as well.

PMW Director Itamar Marcus spoke in the US Congress last month about the dangers inherent in the creation of a PA state. While US President Bush and other senior politicians have touted the creation of a PA state as beneficial to American interests, a PA state would in all likelihood ally itself with America’s enemies, he said.

Among the statements quoted in the report:

“Allah, take hold of the Americans and their allies… Allah, count them and kill them to the last one and don’t leave even one.”  --Ahmed Bahar, speaker of the PA legislative council, on PA TV in April 2007.

“The U.S. and Britain [forces]… stormed Iraqi cities with the participation of military forces from different countries and Baghdad fell. The Iraqis did not surrender to this occupation but succeeded in organizing themselves and a brave resistance to liberate Iraq began.” --Grade 12 textbook used in PA schools.

“To Bush, the Pharaoh, the despot, the terrorist of this period... [we say] that victory is for Islam.”  ---Announcer on PA TV, June 2006.

“No Arab land is safe from the grand American conspiracy, and there is no Arab nation that is not threatened either internally or externally with slaughter…”  --Al-Hayyat al-Jedidah, November, 2006.

The report also found much hatred of US President George Bush, who was referred to in PA media outlets as “racist,” “terrorist,” “devil from Hell,” and “worse than the German Fuhrer.”

“In the past,” the report warns, “US support has not been able to prompt changes in deeply-ingrained hate ideology.” In Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, providing support for groups resisting the ruling power did not win their loyalty to the US, researchers said.  “In the case of Abbas's Palestinian Authority, this is even more striking. Palestinian alliances with these states, and enmity of the US, are deep, explicit and declared throughout the PA’s Arabic discourse... Judging by the tone and scope of the Palestinian Authority’s anti-American hate promotion documented in the report, this hatred by Palestinian Fatah and its closeness to these enemies of the US are not a result of any specific US policy, but are reflective of a deep and sincere ideological affinity to those enemies of the US,” the report concludes.

The Iranian-supplied Grad-type rocket fired at an Ashkelon mall Wednesday was launched from the former Gaza Jewish fishing village of Dugit, which was evacuated and destroyed by Israel in the 2005 Disengagement for the stated purpose of strengthening Israel's security.

Hamas-affiliated Popular Resistance Committees Spokesman Muhammad Abdel-Al told World Net Daily Wednesday that the attack, which wounded dozens, including children, was launched from Dugit, located along the coast in northern Gaza.

Dugit’s residents, mostly secular Jews who made a living fishing in the Mediterranean, left reluctantly, but without a struggle in 2005, when then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced his diplomatic plan to unilaterally withdraw the IDF from Gaza and destroy all the Jewish towns there. More than 9,000 residents were evicted from their homes in the operation.

At the time, residents and other opponents of the plan warned that the communities would be used as terrorist training camps and staging grounds for terrorist attacks.
 
Abdel-Al hailed Wednesday’s attack as a "symbolic act" that proved the effectiveness of PA Arabs’ policies of launching attacks on Jewish civilians to achieve concessions from Israel’s government. "Our launching from Dugit is a sign of success,” Abdel-Al told World Net Daily’s Aaron Klein. “Mark my words, just as we liberated Dugit, so we will liberate Ashkelon, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa.”

In 2005, then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon implemented his Disegagement Plan in which Israel demolished 21 Jewish towns in Gaza and 4 in northern Samaria, forcefully expelled the Jewish residents, and handed the Gaza area over to the Palestinian Authority.  

In his speech to the Herziliya Conference in 2003, Sharon explained that "the purpose of the Disengagement Plan is to reduce terror as much as possible, and grant Israeli citizens the maximum level of security... These steps will increase security for the residents of Israel and relieve the pressure on the IDF and security forces in fulfilling the difficult tasks they are faced with. The Disengagement Plan is meant to grant maximum security and minimize friction between Israelis and Palestinians."

The IDF carried out two air strikes Wednesday night in Gaza city, killing two Hamas terrorists and wounding four, following a deadly Hamas rocket attack on an Ashkelon mall.

The air strikes took place in the Sajeya neighborhood of Gaza City, killing terrorists Mohammad Harara and Ahmed Al Malahi, according to Hamas.
 
Earlier Wednesday, four others were killed and fourteen wounded in clashes with IDF troops in the Jabalya region in northern Gaza and at Khan Younis, in southern Gaza – adjacent to the former Jewish town of N’vei Dekalim.

“Nakba” Clashes in Judea and Samaria
Hundreds of PA Arabs clashed with IDF soldiers at the Kalandia Checkpoint in northern Jerusalem Wednesday under banners claiming obervance of the "Nakba" - meaning the catastrophe - a term PA education curricula applies apply to Israel's establishment. The Arabs pelted soldiers with large stones, to which security forces eventually responded with rubber bullets and tear gas.

Similar clashes took place at IDF security checkpoints near Shechem and the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Shuafat and Abu Dis.

Terrorists Arrested in Judea and Samaria
IDF soldiers Wednesday night arrested 19 wanted terrorists, contradicting reports that counterterrorist operations would be paused while American President George W. Bush is in the country. The arrests took place in the area of Shechem, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hevron.

The reports quoted IDF officers claiming that orders had been given not to conduct any activities against terrorists except for defensive purposes.

Elsewhere in Judea and Samaria, Arab rock-throwing terrorists targeted a Jewish motorist north of Ariel, in Samaria. No one was injured in the attack, but the vehicle sustained much damage.

One of the sessions at President Shimon Peres’s Tomorrow Conference dealt with the topic of “Grooming the future leadership of Israel and the Jewish people.”

“What is the desired profile of tomorrow’s best Jewish leaders?” the programs asked, adding, "Is it possible to  locate and groom the future leaders of Israel and the Jewish People?"

(Left to right) Erez, Dror, Ish-Shalom, Wexner, Levin and Sa'ar
(Photo: Ezra HaLevi)

Sitting on the panel were Political Science Professor Yechezkel Dror, who made headlines with various statements he made after serving on the Winograd Committee to examine the Second Lebanon War; Erez Eshel, the former Tel Aviv University student union head who resigned following a failed strike during the Netanyahu administration in 1998, who then went on to head the Ein Prat pre-military Mechina program in Kfar Adumim, which focuses on training young, non-observant Jews for leadership positions with an emphasis on Zionism, history and ethics; Leslie  Wexner, the CEO  of Limited  Brands and Chairman of the Wexner Foundation, which grants generous fellowships to prospective Jewish leaders in North America and Israel; Hadassah Executive Director Morlie Levin, who was groomed as a Wexner fellow; and Professor Shalom Saada Saar, who teaches Leadership at MIT.

The following are excerpts of the panelists' main points and statements:

Professor Dror:
* Leadership today suffers from tunnel vision, inadequate contact with the needy and preference to associate with the rich and powerful.

* What can be done: Changing the political system – maybe presidential system – abolishing primaries, which place emphasis on capital for politicians.

* Politicians have no right to privacy – medical records and others must be made public.

* Strict imposition of responsibility when politicians fail. Has special significance after first interim Winograd report. [This can be seen as a criticism of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for not resigning when the Committee issued its interim report, though, following the final report, Dror seemed to intimate that the Committee decided to spare Olmert since he was thought to be advancing negotiations with the Palestinian Authority –ed.]

Leslie Wexner:
* Leaders are influenced by mentors, which requires the younger generation to assume that we have positive intent.

* Leadership requires one to listen [with the aim of] understanding, not offer judgment.

* Leaders’ success has to be judged over time. Many appear to be successful but they and their followers have vertigo. Their success is measured over time. History is the best judge…Leadership we also think about as personal, but it is often collective.

*Leaders see beyond the present. But a leader who is too far out is a daydreamer. Leaders are doers, who must influence people to get things done. 

*Professor Dror is talking about revolution: [he is saying that] what got us here isn’t going to take us the rest of the way there.

*We believe in collective morality…It is important to lead and have a moral compass. I believe the Jewish people invented that compass. If we are going to be a light unto the nations, if we are going to repair the world – we are in serious need of leaders.

Morlie Levin:
* We are a people who have a covenant and a mission to work in partnership with G-d to create a world that is more just and fair. We have spent a lot of resources on defending ourselves. We face existential threats, spoken about in many forums, and a threat to our identity, with an increasing disconnect from our religion and the State of Israel. We no longer have the task of building the foundations of the state but we do have the task of ensuring the state’s survival. The Jewish enterprise means we have to see ourselves as a collective - not separate entities.

* Trying to identify an elaborate set of ideals for future leaders in a community as diverse as ours may not be the most ideal way to proceed. Moses was a different leader than Ben Gurion – the Prophetess Devorah was very different than Golda Meir. NGO leaders have different responsibilities and goals than government leaders.

* Three personal attributes that are necessary: humility, openness to new ideas, ability to demonstrate learning – particularly from failure, because it is not always a direct process.

Erez Eshel:
* Hebrew is the language of morals, truth, mankind and leadership so that is the language I will deliver my address in.

* We, the people of Israel find ourselves in a crisis of leadership as a people and political entity. We are in crisis. In the clash of civilizations, the world is not immune. It could be western civilization will collapse and it could be that the State of Israel will collapse.

*Our leaders are caricatures, grotesque as they may be, as to what we, today, have chosen to represent ourselves.

* Every person can be revealed as a leader. Every person is required to display leadership at a point in their life. When Moses heard that Eldad and Medad were prophesying in the camp, and others were alarmed, he said that it would be ideal if all the Jewish people would be prophets.

* What we are marking in Israel this year is 60 years of dreams. The Torah is filled with dreams, from Adam to Abraham to Joseph and onward and onward. Dreams change reality and that is what we have. We need dreams to bring us through the next 60 years.

Prof. Shalom Saada Saar:
* Give me ten men and women like Erez and we can change the world. We have mystified leadership to a point that has made it difficult for others to understand. Harvard did not have a discipline of leadership – they put it in a corner until students demanded to know: “How do I influence without power?,” “How do I mobilize people without authority?” If you look at Pirkei Avot [Ethics of Our Fathers – a book of the Mishna], we have all the concepts needed to pursue leadership.

* It is not just Israel, but the whole world that is in crisis of leadership. Leaders today do not know themselves or have inner peace with themselves – something that is critical for true leadership.

* I believe leadership is spiritual. Think of the people who influenced you the most. It was not the people who had the most experience, but those who were able to give you time. Time is a precious gift that we don’t value anymore. We don’t create leaders’ we cultivate them through education, through listening to them. A true leader listens to the inner voices.

* The Road Map failed because there was no vision. Managers have a Road Map, leaders have a vision. Managers bring ambiguity, leaders bring clarity.

Questions from the audience
Two younger student leaders asked similar questions about why, even though there is young leadership waiting to take the reins are there the same sessions at conference after conference “featuring eighty-year-olds asking ‘Where is the leadership?’ Why are we, the younger generation, not invited to sit at the table and be involved – instead we are brought to the Negev to ride camels.”

Professor Michael Broyde of Atlanta’s Emory University addressed the speakers, saying the discussion missed the fundamental change that has occurred as technology has advanced. “We are entering an era of profound disestablishmentarianism,” he said. “The only community that is currently led is the hareidi community. The religious Zionists are not suffering from bad leadership, but incompetent laity. As the Yiddish saying goes, everybody is ‘making Shabbos by themselves.’ The problem is not building better leadership, but persuading people of the value of being led. Leadership used to share information with people and inspire them to follow, but with the internet now, nobody has any more information with anyone else. There is no trust of leadership. It is the flock who is in crisis, not the leadership.”

A man named Motti Crystal developed on Prof. Broyde’s comment, saying that the masses today are not galvanized by Moses or Ben-Gurion-type leaders, but by bloggers and smaller network leaders.

The final commenters were two native Israelis named Kfir and Noa, as well as a new immigrant from New York name Scott. Kfir and Noa asked how the panelists would go about persuading smart young Israelis to venture into politics “when for the last ten years all politicians from mayors to top echelons have all been investigated for crimes…How can we go into politics without becoming corrupted?”

Scott pointed out that the foundation of leadership is passion and called for the leadership to be made up of people who love the Jewish project – who see it not as a job but as a passion.

Prof. Saar: Before you want to change the world you must change yourself. I was diagnosed as a retarded child at the age of nine and nobody pulled me out of the retarded school. I pulled myself out because I believed my father that only you can maximize the gift that G-d gave you in this world.

Levin: The most important thing is to find a mentor. It is about who to learn from rather than where you learn. The value of mentoring is not as institutionalize or as highly regarded as it could and should be. We need help with that – to partner with you to make clear the importance and impact of mentoring. All of us want to be part of something larger, authentic and passionate.

Wexner: A lot of questions were about leadership and age. When I was young, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Generals are older than privates and professors are older than the students. I am interested in young people’s opinion, but when dealing with the subject of leadership, you need the perspective of someone who has been there. When I was an eaglet I knew I wanted to be an eagle, but I had to recognize that I was not yet there. Leadership means you have to know yourself and understand your strengths and weaknesses. In this forum you have to understand when you are a teacher and when you are a student.

Prof. Dror: The main mission of leadership is weaving the future, which means giving priority to the future. Democracy, which is the best system for most societies, has a congenital defect in that all those effected should have a say – but the next generation does not have a say on most of the decisions that decide its future. Nobody here mentioned power: leadership is not only about making everybody feel good or convincing everyone – which is not possible – but is a matter of concentrating democratic power. Leaders must often wear masks. They can’t always say what they think. Young leaders: please avoid sentimental approaches to leadership. It is impractical. Most people who talk about leadership have never dealt with the dilemma of who to send to die, or which medicines to provide – which is the same dilemma with a nicer packaging.

Eshel: Leadership is to see from afar. You need life experience to learn from the past. There is a value to older leaders who have seen the past, but when we are in a leadership crisis we turn to the young people. Professor Dror talked about reading books [the professor had said he would say to young people, ‘Read this list of books, including Plato and other philosophers, and then come back to me and we will talk about leadership.’ –ed.] Young people today are not reading those books, but they are indeed reading huge, 700-page books – Harry Potter. Why? Harry is an orphan. The young generation feels as an orphan and is seeking a way to carry the torch. It is time to pass that torch.”

Shdemah, an IDF base until two years ago, is targeted to become the beginnings of a new Palestinian Authority city, according to government plans.  But when Land of Israel activists heard the proposal, they set out to stop it - and decided to act precisely during U.S. President George Bush's visit to Israel.

Though the army set up roadblocks to prevent Jews from reaching the site - a five-minute drive from the south-eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa - some 150 adults anticipated this move and arrived at Shdemah beforehand.  As of noon (Thursday), they are still there, having painted the three large buildings and erected a Jewish star, and promising to turn the site into a Jewish town.

Nadia Matar, co-chairperson of Women in Green, spoke to Arutz-7 from the site:

"The Shdemah army base was abandoned two years ago by the IDF.  About two months ago, we heard a rumor that the government was planning to give it away to the Palestinian Authority enemy and turn it into an Arab neighborhood.  The government denied it, but MK Uri Ariel submitted an official Knesset inquiry on the topic - and soon received confirmation from Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai that in fact, a former IDF army base was to be turned into a hospital and neighborhood for the PA.

"We immediately realized that we could not let this happen and that we must take action. Could this be Zionism - to build cities for the enemy?!   It's clear that the majority of the Jewish people oppose such a thing."

Shdemah is located in what the Oslo Accords have termed Area C - that is, area under total Israeli control (as opposed to Area A, which is under total Palestinian Authority control, and Area B, which is under Israeli military control and PA administrative control). Asked what could be the basis for unilaterally changing the status of Area C, Nadia said, "You're asking me?! How could they unilaterally give away Gush Katif!?  But this is what we have to deal with..." 

She then continued her story: "We organized ourselves, and decided to time our move with the visit to Israel of Bush and the other dignitaries.  We also took out a full-page ad in the Jerusalem Post, telling Bush that the majority of the Jewish people, just like the majority of Americans, are patriotic and love their land - not like the government members he meets who are defeatist and wish only to retreat and find favor in others' eyes.  We invited him to come to Shdemah and see the real Jews - those who are loyal to the Land and believe, as he does, in the Bible that promises it to us.  Who knows, perhaps he'll come - though it doesn't look like it...

"We came before the army set up their roadblocks, and others managed to bypass them, and now the entire base here has been spray-painted, and we have put up a giant Jewish Star (Magen David), and have hung Israeli flags all over.  At the moment, Atty. Elyakim Haetzni is giving a lecture.

"We also had a foundation stone laying ceremony today, during which we buried an urn containing a scroll on which we inscribed our loyalty to the Land deep inside the earth as an eternal sign of our bonds with Eretz Yisrael."

Asked about the army's plans, Nadia said, "It appears that they are gathering large forces down below, so we'll see... It does appear that they will try to remove us, but our message is that no matter how many times they remove us, we'll be back - and in fact, tomorrow another large group - this time, it will be youth - plans to come back."

MK Eldad on His Way
MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union), currently on his way to the site, said, "With Ashkelon under fire, and while the government of Israel leaves its citizens helpless and tries to reach a surrender agreement with Hamas, the people of Gush Etzion have given the proper Zionist response: The laying of a foundation stone for a new Jewish town."

"This is also a message to President Bush, that the policy he is leading together with Olmert is liable to bring a catastrophe upon us - unless the Jews do what is good for the Jews."

Dari Barkin, spokesman for the Israeli kibbutzim surrounding Gaza, says that daily life has been very tough for civilians in the last seven years under rocket and mortar fire.

[video:123203]
Can't see video player? Click here.

When asked what he wants the government to do to protect the Jews in the region, he said that they need more shelters and safe places to run to when attacked. He did not mention a demand for the military to silence the attacks.

Israel National News anchorman Aharon Deutch noted that the kibbutzim in the area supported Ariel Sharon's 2005 Disengagement plan to retreat from Gaza and proceeded to ask the kibbutz leader if they had changed their minds in light of the continued rocket attacks. Click play on the player above to hear his answer.

A7 Radio's  'Mikdash Kids' with Judy Simon

Cycles of seven keep showing up in the Torah, like the 7-year Shemittah cycle and the 7-day week. What's so special about the number seven? Why does the Land of Israel have a Sabbath just like people do? Also: Hear about the Torah Ecology Learning Program. Plus: MIKDASH KIDS CONTEST with PRIZES!

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