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Since 2001, Kassam rockets in Sderot have evolved from contraptions that first made residents of the Southern Israel town laugh to instruments of war that deprived the same citizens of normalcy in their everyday lives.

But while he did reflect on the height of Kassam terror in a speech during the final day of the Jewish National Fund National Conference on Monday in Philadelphia, Sderot Mayor David Bouskila optimistically looked forward to the bright future of his city as fewer and fewer Kassams fall due to the success of the IDF's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.

When the first Kassam landed in Sderot eight years ago, Bouskila said it was so miniscule that "unless it falls on your head, you can't die." But over time, as Palestinian technology improved, the rockets became more deadly and fell with such frequency that they not only took lives, but caused post-traumatic stress disorder for 7,000 children, who grew up without simple pleasures like playing peacefully with friends.

During the era of Kassam rockets, life in Sderot is divided into nerve-racking 15-second intervals, Bouskila explained.

"If you cannot find shelter in 15 seconds, it can be the last 15 second of your life," Bouskila said.

The first words children learn in Sderot are "color red," Bouskila said, the warning signal for a Kassam attack.

"The children that are now 8 years old, they know only what are red color situations and yellow color situations," rather than how to live normally, Bouskila said.

However, after Cast Lead in December 2008, Kassam attacks have decreased to "only" once a week or twice a month in Sderot, Bouskila said.

"This is also something not normal, but this is something we can live with," Bouskila said of the current Kassam situation.

Nevertheless, this school year opened with a red color signal in Sderot, and the town's medical center, which normally cares for 20-50 people each day, had to tend to nearly 1,000, Bouskila said.

What also helped bring a measure of normalcy to Sderot was JNF's installation of an indoor playground there this past Purim, called the Sderot Indoor Recreation Center. In the playground, children who have suffered for eight years "feel like they are in another country, another town" and can even hear a red signal but continue to play, Bouskila said. Emotionally revitalized, Sderot high school students produced the best average marks in all of Israel on this year's matriculation exams, he said.

Regarding the recent report by Judge Richard Goldstone that accused the Israel Defense Forces of war crimes in Gaza, Bouskila said the report fails to take readers inside the minds of Sderot's children and citizens, who do in fact feel sympathy for the other side in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We feel pain for the people that suffer on both sides," Bouskila said. "We are human beings."

When two sides suffer, it is natural for the public to blame the stronger side, which happens to be Israel with a superior army and shelters that protect children, Bouskila said. However, Israel's ability to protect its citizens is nothing to be ashamed of, he said.

In a letter to Goldstone, Bouskila said he wrote "Where were you the last eight years? We never hear your voice," addressing the fact that Goldstone never cried foul about the Kassam attacks in Sderot over the years. Goldstone responded to Bouskila that he wanted to visit Sderot but wasn't allowed to do so, and Bouskila said Goldstone should be allowed to visit because "we have nothing to hide."

Bouskila said that without JNF's efforts to build infrastructure in Israel, the Jewish people wouldn't have the country to call their home.

"We have to remember that Israel is only 61 years old, but JNF is 108 years old," he said.

A video presented before Bouskila's speech reviewed the Sderot Media Center's efforts to balance the Gaza narrative in the public sphere through programs like the Sderot Community Theater Project, which puts on plays that allow teenage actors to express emotions they sometimes can't through real-life experiences, the video said.

Marlene Meyer, who works for JNF's Northern California Region and introduced Bouskila, recalled being in Sderot when the playground opened last year, and said that from all the parents who warmly thanked her, she realized how "that as caretakers, we also need to take care of the caregivers."

After Bouskila's speech, Howard Kaplan presented the mayor with a menorah plaque, calling it a symbol for the menorahs and the lights that will be lit in Sderot for the years to come.

"In think in a lot of ways you've become sort of all of our 'other mayor'," Kaplan said to Bouskila.