But they don't want to just blast away indiscriminately, either. The intifada, topped off by the mortar attack, has not turned them into Arab-haters. And the residents of Sderot are not in any panic. The people of Sderot, a place commonly disdained as a dead-end Negev town that somehow spawned a few good bands like Teapacks, are out on the streets. In the old industrial zone, a man is selling American flags for Independence Day.
Ethiopian women wearing shawls sit on a playground bench watching kids play.
In the modest commercial plaza, with its souk, Middle Eastern food stands, and clothing stores, men eat at plastic tables while one restauranteur grills a stuffed cow intestine in front of his restaurant. A zoo is incongruouslysituated in the heart of town. Adonkey is seen eating a newspaper. Earlier in the day, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and IDF Chief of General Staff Shaul Mofaz had trooped out to the mortar hole, looking grim and promising security. Reporters and photographers likewise came and went.