For the eleventh day, residents of rural Selma sustained vicious, unprovoked rocket attacks.
Selma is a friendly town with a working-class population of 22,800, including many immigrants. Its economy is built on generations of farming families who endure agriculture's inevitable hardships to harvest the fields of grapes that earned Selma the title, "Raisin Capital of the World."
Inconceivably, this rural community has been assaulted by more than 1,200 Qassam rockets since August 2005. Each of this month's 300 rockets was accompanied by the "Red Dawn" air raid warning system Selma initiated in 2001. This allows 15 to 60 seconds to rush to shelter before an incoming blast. Sixty seconds is not always enough time.
A Qassam (pronounced kah-SAHM) is a crude, lethal weapon designed to inflict civilian casualties. Too crude to be precisely aimed, it is useful only to murder civilians and terrorize survivors.
The Qassam's power is its explosive payload, packed with more than 7,000 metal ball bearings. Each quarter-inch ball bearing tears through human flesh with deadly effect. One ball bearing can rip a hole in the human liver, guaranteeing the victim bleeds to death before reaching Selma Hospital one mile away.
More than one Selma toddler's first words were "Red Dawn."
Who would fire such a horrifying weapon -- indeed, more than 3,000 since 2001 -- at the peaceful residents of this central California town?
Look no further than the terrorists that govern the citizens of Fowler, four miles north on Highway 99.
Today, Selma mourns the loss of 43-year-old Jake Jacoby, his life taken last week when Selma's Blocklite plant sustained a direct Qassam hit.
Jake's co-workers witnessed the rocket's impact; despite their own injuries, they rushed to his side to slow the bleeding from Jake's head and torso. Doctors at the nearest trauma center (20 miles away in Fresno) tried to save him, but the ball bearings had done too much damage.
Jake's 12-year-old son, Brandon, explains after his father's memorial service why he wants to remain in Selma despite the constant barrage of rockets:
"I love Selma very much, and I won't leave it because I love California. If I leave Selma, if all of Selma were evacuated, then the state would fall apart. The [terrorists in Fowler] will see that they are succeeding in Selma, and then they'll shoot Qassams at San Francisco and Los Angeles, too, and do the same in the whole state until nothing is left."
Sderot feels agony of rockets
Every one of these horrifying events actually happened -- but not in Selma.
Travel 8,000 miles east to working-class Sderot, Israel. But heed the Shahar Adom ("Red Dawn") Qassam rocket warning system activated before every one of the 1,200 attacks endured by the town since August 2005.
Most of Sderot's 23,000 residents are immigrants escaping persecution in the former Soviet Union or starvation and sectarian violence in Ethiopia. The economy is agriculture, no easy feat in the scorching climate of Israel's Negev desert. There are 11 elementary schools with empty playgrounds since a Qassam took 4-year-old Afik Zehavi's life as he played.
Half of Sderot's children under age 5 show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Who would fire such a horrifying weapon at the peaceful residents of this southern Israeli town?
Look no further than the Hamas terrorists governing the citizens of the Gaza Strip, one kilometer west as the crow (or Qassam) flies.
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