While Iran is working diligently towards achieving nuclear independence, one would think in Israel, leaders feel time is not an issue of concern. Defense Ministry officials recently informed the cabinet that the personal protection gas mask kits collected after the Second Gulf War would only be prepared and re-distributed in the coming years, mentioning five, 2013.

The distribution of the modified protection kits was to begin in January 2009, in a number of months, but Defense Ministry officials have recently reported that the treasury’s refusal to release NIS 150 million is delaying the process. Finance Ministry officials report the matter is being discussed and a final determination has not been made.

Security establishment officials add that the decision by Shaul Mofaz during his tenure as defense minister during the Second Gulf War was an erroneous one, one that cost the nation NIS 1.5 billion. It was Mofaz who decided to call on citizens to break the seals of the kits and prepare to use them.

Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, who is overseeing the homefront protection project, is recommending that each home has a safe room equipped to address a chemical attack. In addition to the safe room intended to protect against a projectile, Vilnai wants to add an air filtration system that would address a chemical threat. This filter he explains would permit doing away with gas masks entirely. This process will be a lengthy one, expected to take 15 years, at which time every safe room will be equipped with the air filtration system that will be partially subsidized by the government.

Vilnai is acting on the recommendations of the Winograd Commission, calling to prepare for the need to remain in a sheltered area for prolonged periods. The current safe rooms are designed to permit oxygen for three hours based on an “average family”, namely five people, but the planned filtration system may permit weeks or even months. It also facilitates addressing other problems such as communications, eating and protecting infants.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)