Jennifer Does It Again

Again?

Yes another fair, objective and insightful article on Israel in the...New York Times. The first was on Hebron.

Sderot Journal
Give Them Shelter: Where Rockets, and Drums, Go Boom

SDEROT, Israel — The underground Israeli pop-rock music scene seems to start here, in a bomb shelter set in the center of town.

It does not matter how loudly the teenagers hammer at their drums or pluck at the guitars; the green tin that is meant to protect residents from incoming rockets also works as a sound barrier for the funky music.

It is not unusual for Israeli towns to turn shelters into community centers of some sort. But Sderot, barely a mile from the Gaza Strip, is one of the few cities where such shelters are still used frequently.

And in Sderock, as the shelter-turned-music studio is called, the teenagers grapple with the dueling realities that have made the city famous: the music that comes out of it and the rockets that come into it.

“This is the safest fun place in the city,” said Nir Oliel, 21, who has played guitar for several years. “It is also where everyone great came from.”

Read the rest here.