Is the Israeli government on vacation?

While most of Jerusalem is being shut down for another visit by George Bush, our fellow citizens are being terrorized continually in the South. Today's main stories should be ringing alarm bells for every Israeli politician:

Gaza rocket hits Ashkelon mall; several people hurt
By The Associated Press

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, apparently a Katyusha-type rocket, exploded in a shopping center in the southern city of Ashkelon on Wednesday, wounding at least ten people.

According to preliminary reports, three of the injured were in serious condition, two were in moderate condition and at least eleven suffered minor wounds.

40 families leaving Gaza border community after member killed
By Fadi Eyadat, Mijal Grinberg and Yuval Azoulay

Some 40 families from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, near the Gaza Strip, have decided to leave the area.

"We decided to leave the kibbutz until things quiet down, and unfortunately, it will be with white flags," Dudi Doron, a member of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, said Tuesday. "Neither I nor my children will be Israel's hostages. We will come back when there is a solution to life," Doron said.

Last night, like every night since Friday, when kibbutz member Jimmy Kedoshim was killed by mortar fire while standing in his garden, a number of kibbutz members met to discuss plans to leave en masse.

"Its a matter of where to go and not if to go," another member, Shlomi Koren, said. "I don't expect anyone to solve the problem for me. I have to do it myself because no one has shown any willingness to do it."

HELLO!?!?! Our citizens in the South are facing daily warfare and we're spending millions to welcome George Bush? What has this country come to? It's sad that these people are being forced to 'quit' their world because their brothers have forsaken them & because they don't live in 'important' cities like Tel Aviv or Netanya. If these 'border' cities fall, Israel will follow ...

The disengagement really worked wonders, eh?