Today we travelled to Sderot, Israel. Sderot is a community in the Western Negev just one mere mile from Hamas-ruled, Iran-backed Gaza. The majority of us had never been to Sderot during our previous visits to Israel; I can confidently speak for the majority of us in saying that what we learned in our visit was unexpected. Although Sderot is not a subject often heard in the media, as pro-Israel activists, most of us understood Sderot as the city that has suffered more than 15,000 Qassam rockets attacks in the past decade (some of which, we learned, were not reported), which averages to three per day. However, our tour educator Elliot Chodoff, a professor at the University of Haifa, offered us a new perspective of these attacks.

He pointed out that although the bomb shelters we saw on nearly every street make it seem like residents are always dodging rockets—in reality, this is not the case. In fact, Mr. Chodoff cited a statistical study that proved driving to an airport in New York City to get to Israel is more of a threat to one’s life than being in Sderot and following bomb shelter procedure. This is due in part to Israel’s rocket detection system, the plethora of shelters, and the fact that most rockets that land in Sderot are homemade “stupid rockets,” lacking target accuracy. Mr. Chodoff argued, however, that the true threat in Sderot is the emotion and fear caused by the rockets, not the death toll.

Sderot is but one example of a common theme we have highlighted on this program—Israel wants peace, but Israel’s neighbors do not meet her with the same desire. While Israel sends, on a daily basis, humanitarian aid into Gaza, Gaza sends back missiles. Thus, Israel’s partner for peace clearly does not reside in Gaza. This Gaza has shown us around 15,000 times.