MP: Israel Turning Blind Eye to Home Front Readiness
Israel's leaders are "wantonly disregarding" the country's ability to cope with a war as tensions rise over a possible confrontation with Iran, an MP in charge of home front preparations has told Agence France Presse.
Zeev Bielsky, who heads the parliamentary committee for home front preparedness, said there was a dire shortage of gas masks ready for use in the event of a war.
"Today, only 60 percent of Israelis -- 4.5-5 million people -- have gas masks," he said.
"We must be prepared at any moment for any possible scenario, and today we are completely unprepared," said Bielsky, who is an MP with Kadima, the center-right opposition party.
The shortage of masks was the result of the government failing to allocate sufficient funds to the two Israeli factories that produce the masks, he charged.
With the current state of turmoil in the region, it was no less than "wanton disregard" that the government was "not providing this basic product, which every citizen should have," he said.
A spokeswoman for the Israel Postal Company, which is responsible for distributing the masks, told AFP earlier this week that so far, they had distributed approximately four million gas masks, and currently had less than 100,000 left.
"This is all we have. It is not enough for all Israeli citizens. When we have more, we'll distribute more," said Meirav Lapidot, admitting she had no indication if and when they would receive additional masks.
Source: Agence France Presse
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