"It became so much worse since the disengagement," stated Noam Bedein, head of the Sderot Media Center. Bedein was interviewed on Arutz Sheva's Reality Bytes podcast with Josh Hasten.
Despite the rocket attacks, real estate prices have reportedly been going up in the southern city close to the border with Gaza. Hasten hypothesizes that part of the reason is because every home now has a bomb shelter which doubles as an extra room, adding to the property value. Bedein said Sderot natives are resilient and steadfast in the face of terrorism and won't likely back down despite the threats.
For the full interview click here.
"There have been almost 2,000 rockets fired from Gaza into Israel since the end of Operation Cast Lead," he said, commenting on the battle which lasted from December 2008 to January 2009. He quoted Kobi Harush, head of the Sderot security division, as stating that there have been almost 27,000 rocket attacks over the past ten years.
Although Bedein says spirits are high, he complained that Sderot never received very much attention. "It's absurd that we are the only media center on the ground here. Now there are non-stop journalists calling at the last minute to try and speak to residents," Bedein said.
Bedein said that TV networks from the United States, Brazil, Australia and a local Arabic language network have contacted him this past week, before the beginning of Operation Pillar of Defense, for firsthand reports. "If we only had a bigger budget and more staff we could get more coverage on our side of the story," he said.
Bedein was skeptical about the multiple broken cease fires that were declared by Hamas earlier in the week and skeptical about future ones as well. "We cease and they fire," he quipped.
For the full interview with Noam Bedein of the Sderot Media Center, including his thoughts on why the Israeli Electric Company has been supplying power to Gaza, download the latest episode of Reality Bytes with Josh Hasten by clicking here.
Arutz Sheva's Reality Bytes podcast is hosted by public relations expert Josh Hasten and airs live every Wednesday and Thursday from 10:00 am - 12:00 noon Israel time on www.IsraelNationalRadio.com. For mp3 archives click here.