The Israeli National Emergency Authority, the Defense Ministry body responsible for immunizing the population in the event of an emergency, has recently signed an agreement for cooperation with its American counterpart, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Within the framework of this program, representatives of the Israeli National Emergency Authority will participate in simulations which will take place in the United States and which will resemble different disaster scenarios. Similarly, methods of work and confronting emergencies which have been developed in Israel will be presented before the representatives from across the ocean.

“The Americans see us as an authority in our field, but fortunately for us there are incidents that we have yet had to confront. With them – scenarios such as extremely strong earthquakes, and the evacuation of mass populations,” explains the head of the Israeli National Emergency Authority, Ze’ev Tzuk-Rom. “In general, the motto here is to gain experience and to learn from their previous knowledge.”

The work teams made up of by the representatives of the Israeli emergency organizations will meet during the year with their colleagues from the United States, and among the possible cooperative efforts, they will discuss together the possibility of establishing a school for the management of emergency situations, which will be parallel to the established American model, in addition to setting up cooperative training exercises.

“The list of things that we can yield from this agreement is endless,” said Kobi, the head of the Israeli National Emergency Authority’s Planning and Strategic Cooperation Department. “The most important thing that we will internalize is the cultural understanding of the way American work. Relative to the size of the country, we have had to deal with many high pressure incidents.”

In the meantime, Major Chezi Deutsch, who will be promoted to the rank of Lt.-Colonel, and will be appointed this summer as the Liaison Officer of the Home Front Command within the United States, explains that the cooperative work between FEMA and the Israeli National Emergency Authority has already begun.

“The job of the Liaison Officer is to represent the Home Front Command and the Israeli National Emergency Authority. We have a great relationship with the Israeli National Emergency Authority with regard to everything related to international relationships and we have already begun to implement coordination of expectations between the American and Israeli bodies, as a part of the cooperative work.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem / IDF)