Peres shmeres

Our 82 year old Deputy PM, Shimon Peres, has got himself into hot water again. This time he was quoted as belittling the rain of rockets on Sderot, calling it "Kassam, shmassam," and comparing the "hysterical" reaction of the inhabitants of Sderot to the "long-suffering" of the inhabitants of Kiryat Shmona in the far north, who were subjected to a continual rain of mortars and rockets in the 70's-80's from Hizbollah in Lebanon.
While there is a serious point behind his comments, namely he thinks it does no good to have a hysterical reaction and to cause a strong IDF military response at this time, nevertheless he received no support from Government and opposition spokesmen, who found his comments "irresponsible." Perhaps it is not timely to respond to the rockets with a mini-invasion of Gaza or the targeted killing of Hamas Ministers, who could call off these attacks any time, because while the PA is chronically split and on the verge of civil war, it little behooves us to provide them with a basis for unification.
But, this reaction did not impress Eli Moyal the Mayor of Sderot, who called Peres "Peres Shmeres" and invited him to spend a night in Sderot and see for himself. Meanwhile today the Mayor and citizens of Sderot carried out their plan and made Sderot a closed town, with all major roads into and out of the town blocked. The Government spokesman Ra'anan Gissin called on all Israeli citizens, including those of Tel Aviv, to show solidarity with the people of Sderot by going down there and helping them. But, Moyal rejected this and called it an excuse for the absence of real Government action to solve the problem of the rockets.
Whether or not the Government can act, or whether or not there is in fact a real deterrent to the rockets, neither Peres nor Peretz, the "P twins," did themselves any political good so far in this crisis. Moyal calling for the Government to resign if they can't resolve this problem is the first such challenge for Olmert's Government.