by Robert Wiener
NJJN Staff Writer

March 27, 2008

To Alon Shuster, his corner of Israel’s volatile Negev is “99 percent paradise with our green environment and our ambient tranquility. Everything is OK.”

During that other 1 percent of the time, red alerts sound and some 6,000 people rush for shelter in schools, homes, offices, and “safe rooms” on 10 kibbutzim. On occasion, the alarms have sounded up to 20 times a day. “Things change at once,” said Shuster, mayor of the Sha’ar HaNegev Region, which includes the embattled town of Sderot.

Since 2003, his area has been hit by an estimated 7,000 rocket attacks from Hamas militants in nearby Gaza. Increasingly, Israeli forces have struck back. Death tolls keep increasing on both sides, with no end in sight.

In a March 24 visit to the Whippany headquarters of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ, which has a sister-city relationship with his region, Shuster discussed the difficulties of waiting for an end to the hostilities. “Nobody promised me that there is a quick, good solution,” he told a group of about 30 UJC leaders working on Israel advocacy. “We have to prepare ourselves for a very longtime, unclear situation. Our main goal is to broadcast to our children, our government, our friends, and our enemies that we are committed to stay exactly where we are.”

The rocket attacks have increased his determination to build and strengthen his community.

“When they shoot at us, we are planning a new high school. When they try to infiltrate us through the fence, we are talking about new environmental and tourist projects. While they don’t respect the right of Israel to exist, we are going to develop our cultural life and invite more people to settle here.”

Before heading to meetings with Jewish leaders in New York and California, Shuster toured the MetroWest area, including Ahawas Achim B’nai Jacob and David in West Orange on Sunday, urging audiences to help build a state-of-the-art bomb-resistant school complex in Sderot.

He said he is looking for $15 million for a protected campus, which will have laboratories, classrooms, libraries, and facilities for the arts. He said the government has already committed $10 million for the project.

And he acknowledged that many of his constituents are frustrated with the government’s response to the area’s security needs.

In February, Shuster led a delegation from his area to protest outside the office of Prime Minster Ehud Olmert, demanding more money for “safe rooms” to protect people from the Kassam rockets.

“It was something the prime minister did not want to do but he will do. From time to time you have to push,” he said.

And yet, as a practical politician now at the beginning of a second five-year term, he conceded, “It doesn’t shock me that we don’t get everything we want at once.”

Asked about reports of possible back-channel talks with Hamas aimed at halting attacks and counterattacks, Shuster said, “I expect my government to hold all of their cards very close to the chest. They don’t have to tell me or anybody what they are doing. They must find a way to make clear to Hamas what will be the rule of a long-term cease-fire or the condition under which we would not attack them.

“I think that we accept any decision of the government. It could be a military step and it could also be a diplomatic one. What we need is safety.”

The plain-talking kibbutznik sees Northern Ireland as a role model — a place where two intractable enemies appear to have reached a point of peace after decades of violent conflict.

“We should talk with anybody who wants to talk with us. This is the issue,” he said. “But on the other hand, we are the strongest country in the Middle East. I am a lieutenant colonel in the air force. We don’t have to be afraid of talking. You talk when you have to talk, and you hit when you have to hit.”

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