Some experts warn that at present, the nation is ill-prepared for a non-conventional attack, perhaps the worst situation in two decades.

MK (Likud) Dr. Yuval Shteinitz, a former chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee, warned the cabinet decision to upgrade gas mask personal protection kits to prepare for an atomic, biological or chemical attack lacks responsibility. He explained there are no deadlines and the decision lacks the basic criteria to ensure the decision is implemented in a timely and professional fashion.

Drawing on the Second Lebanon War as an example, he stated one can already envision the commissions of inquiry into the next war, guaranteed to find us far from a state of preparedness vis-à-vis the homefront.

The protection kits, which were recently collected by a private contractor, are slated to be upgraded and eventually redistributed to the population. When the decision was made to collect them, it was believed the threat of a missile attack was negligible due to American actions against Saddam Hussein.

The Second Lebanon War and ongoing Iranian nuclear efforts now creates new facts on the ground, sending a clear message that the threat of a non-conventional missile attack is more a reality than ever before.

Shteinitz, while serving as committee chairman last year, opposed the collection of the personal protection kits. He is now calling on the government at the very least to deliver updated kits immediately to combat reserve duty soldiers so they are ready to respond on a moments notice.

IDF Brig.-Gen. (Reserves) Ze’ev Tzuk-Ram, who heads the nation’s National Emergency Administration, cautions against panic. He stated with a modicum of confidence that the remainder of the old kits will be collected, then they will be updated and they will all be returned to homes around the country.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)