The Muqata: Keep Calm and Carry On

Hi People -- Jameel here.

Yes, I know I've been strangely silent the past week or so, as JoeSettler and others have escaped the asylum and taken over the blog.

Have no fear, I'm fine. I was just overwhelmed with work and personal issues that needed addressing, and I felt I needed a long deserved break after blogging the war around the clock.

During a joust to London last week, I came across the most fascinating sign -- a relic from World War II. This poster was intended to be hung up throughout England to ensure that his Majesty's subjects would remain prim and proper throughout the German bombings of London.

"You can carry on with your business" I can almost hear Obi Wan Kenobi informing a weak-minded StormTrooper:

Obi-Wan: He can go about his business.

Stormtrooper: You can go about your business.

Obi-Wan: Move along.

Stormtrooper: Move along... move along.

(ok, so it was "move along" instead of "carry on", but it was close enough)

Israel's Cast-Lead operation is but a distant memory in the minds of Palestinian terrorists who are back to shooting rockets at Israel on a daily basis.

Five, seven, now ten a day are hitting Israel's south...and the 100th rocket to hit Israel since the IDF's operation has passed.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert then lets loose silly statements at today's cabinet meeting, "The State of Israel has a broad range of actions that it can take. This range of actions will be exhausted until complete quiet is brought to the south." (ynet)

However, the residents of Israel's south aren't so easily placated:

Paula Kantori, a resident of Shokeda, a town in the Eshkol Regional Council, also feels as though the military operation in Gaza has yet to be concluded. "With all the pain entailed in doing so, they (the military) needed to stay there. In my opinion, we as residents withstood the rockets extraordinarily. So we expect the government and the military to continue to take care of us," she claimed.
According to her, the residents live with no sense of security in light of the IDF's anemic response to the rocket firings. "In the first days that saw rocket fire from Gaza, I was scared. But afterwards, when the operation began, we felt safe, that someone was protecting us. Now we don't have that feeling anymore. We are back to the same old story. We we left, we said we would respond to the first Qassam. Today we have already reached the 100th Qassam," she recounted.
"I feel like an actor in a tragedy, where the stage is the southern region," said Yagil Yavin, a resident of Nir Yitzhak, a town in Eshkol Regional Council. (ynet)

However, Prime Minister Olmert has a hidden plan -- he also printed up posters for distribution in Ashkelon, Sderot, Ashdod, Beer Sheva, Kiryat Gat and Yavneh, and you lucky readers can see them here first in a Muqata exclusive: