What Did You Do Today?

Tell me, what did you do today? Was it a normal day? Did you go to work, to school? Did you make plans to go out with friends? While you went about your day, did it occur to you, for even a second, that a rocket or a missile might come flying into your city, your neighborhood, your home?

Did you worry about where your children might be? Did you wonder if your child's school could withstand an

Did you worry about where your children might be? Did you wonder if your child's school could withstand an incoming rocket?

incoming rocket? Would the roof collapse? Is there space enough for all the children? Did you think that a siren might go off while they were in the street and that they might not have time to seek shelter before a mortar hit? Did you look, while you were driving, where you might pull over or if you could stop the car fast enough? Did you fill your car with gas and wonder what would happen to those nearby if a gas station were hit?

This is what today was like for tens of thousands of people in Israel. Dozens of rockets have been shot at our cities; thousands, tens of thousands fled for their lives. One woman ran across a street looking for shelter, only to be hit by a car. Yesterday, and today, residents knew terror and fear.

A grandfather who volunteers on the local ambulance squad was called, this time to treat several children injured by a rocket. One was his grandchild. This man has lived in Sderot for 50 years, but now cannot advise his children and grandchildren to stay. What did you do today?

Did you go to work? What will happen if you decide to go out to lunch? Do you know where the nearest shelter is? Can you get there fast enough? Hurry, you only have 15 seconds. In the short time you have read these paragraphs, another missile might have been launched and already found its target. What did you do today?

George Bush was here recently, but he didn't visit Sderot. Ehud Olmert sounded off more words, but he doesn't live there. At most, he goes for a few minutes, under heavy guard, and never in the open. His bodyguards make sure that he is never more than 15 seconds from safety, but who watches for the people of Sderot? Who will speak for the young children who know that at any moment, they might hear a siren, and the mothers who must quickly think where their children are? Where will they sleep tonight if the endless storms of rockets and mortars continue? Will they put their children to bed and wonder if they must grab them and run? Should they sleep in the shelter?

So many rockets, it's hard to count them. The newsman on the radio said ten, but then announced another. Eleven. The Internet sites reported a steady stream. Three rockets; two mortars. Three mortars. A rocket. It hit a house. It hit open fields. It hit near this area. It just missed a school. People in shock. A car was damaged. A rocket near the industrial zone. A playground moments after children fled. Unknown if there are injuries. No one

So many rockets, it's hard to count them.

hurt in this barrage. A woman lightly injured. Two teenage boys badly hurt. A young child, a beautiful boy that his parents waited for years to finally be able to bring into the world, killed in the school yard. No injuries. A near miss. Several treated for shock. What did you do today?

It's night here in Israel, but still the rockets fly. The children didn't go to school today. How could they? Will they be safe in the streets? Even their schools are not really safe. How can they go? Will they go tomorrow? Would you send your child to a school that was not protected? And even if it was, what about on the way to school? Can you trust your children to run fast enough, to find a place fast enough? They have 15 seconds. Can you imagine the fear that fills the body for those 15 seconds until they hear the explosion? Until they know that it hit there and not here? Until they know if anyone was there?

So many questions and so few answers. Can these rockets be stopped? Is the government doing anything? Is the army doing enough? Would any other country in the world accept this daily attack? Why didn't CNN report 50 rockets hitting our country yesterday and 10 more today and the hundreds before that? BBC will report when our planes try to hit the rocket launchers; as if the sequence was so clear - as if our planes tried to hit the rocket launchers and they, in retaliation, fired rockets. If we hit back and try to really stop the rockets, what price will be paid? The terrorists who create these terror-filled seconds of agony hide among civilians. They don't care about their own and it is safer for them.

We tried warning the people in Gaza - we are going to hit this house in which this man lives. He is known to us. He plans and organizes these endless rocket attacks and we can't continue like this. Go away, we will hit this man's house. He is a terrorist. And what did the Palestinian mothers and fathers do? They took their children and surrounded this terrorist's house. With their bodies, they shielded this man who attacks our cities and threatens our people. And what did our army do? What did our government do? They called off the attack, afraid that the

Are Palestinians that shield terrorists with their bodies and with their children innocent?

world would condemn us for killing innocent Palestinians. But are Palestinians that shield terrorists with their bodies and with their children innocent? And who will protect Israel's citizens while our government is so concerned about the loss of life in Gaza? What did you do today?

A few days ago, sections of Sderot were without power because electricity lines were hit. Gaza has power and fuel and electricity because Israel supplies these things. Sderot is in darkness; Gaza alight with the blood of our people. What did the government do today?

I don't know what you did today - and I don't know what I did to help the people of Israel's Sderot region, but I do know that Olmert did nothing today, and yesterday - and will likely do the same tomorrow, too.