'Let's make our own rockets'

By Amir Mizroch
February 11, 2008

Picture that appears in the Facebook
group says "This could be you"
Photo: Courtesy

A new Facebook group is urging Sderot residents to use the Internet to learn how to build crude rockets, much like the Kassams launched at them from the Gaza Strip, and fire them back at the Palestinians.

The group, which currently has 45 members, posts material from the Internet on how to manufacture rockets.

Facebook, a social networking site that has taken the on-line world by storm, allows anyone to create groups and to invite people to join.

The group's creators, Shai and Batya Messenberg from Petah Tikva, posted a description that reads: "It cannot be so difficult: If those retards from the Gaza Strip can do it then so can you."

The description encourages residents of the town to trawl the Net for information on how to build ballistic missiles from materials found in the home.

"I'm sure that very soon they [the Gazans] will get the message," the group's creator wrote.

A link to NASA's Rocket Science 101 tutorial can also be found on the Facebook group's page. The tutorial allows users to choose from a menu of rockets to assemble, although the NASA rockets are much larger and more complex than the Kassam.

The message goes on to say that Sderot residents can also do their part in cutting off the flow of Israeli electricity to the Gaza Strip, "even if the High Court of Justice won't allow it," by finding someone with a tractor who is willing to drive into nearby electrical poles.

The Gaza Strip receives 70 percent of its electricity from Israel, the vast majority of which is produced at the Rotenberg Power station in Ashkelon.

The group's logo picture shows a Palestinian Kassam rocket crew preparing to fire, with the words "This could be you" scrawled in red across the photograph.

The new group joins about 50 other Facebook groups in support of Sderot, such as Save Sderot, Stop the Kassam rockets in Sderot, Light a candle with Sderot, I stand w/Sderot, From 90210 to Sderot, Children of Sderot, Skate for Sderot, and For the residents of other towns in the western Negev not waiting for the next Kassam (this group is planning to ask every radio station in the country to simultaneously play the Color Red alarm - the one heard in Sderot when Kassam rockets are fired from Gaza - to increase awareness of Sderot's plight).

Last month, a WIMAX wireless Internet infrastructure was established in Sderot. The technology enables the use of wireless broadband links over long distances.

The project will allow students and others to surf the Web for free and with high-quality connections.