Israel Faces Dire Shortage Of Gas Masks …

… and yet the cabinet voted yesterday to cut the defense budget, ignoring warnings from the defense establishment and new Defense Minister Ehud Barak that these cuts could cripple the IDF. How bad is the gas mask shortage? This Jerusalem Post, which broke the story, tells us:

…Acknowledging that the population's gas masks will not be renewed and effective for at least another two years, defense officials told the Post Sunday that the IDF Home Front Command was currently considering proposals, if the need arises, to make emergency purchases of gas masks from Israeli and American companies.

If war were to break out in the coming months, the Home Front Command would only have enough gas masks for 1.5 million adults and half-a-million children.

The shortage in gas masks stems from a 2003 Defense Ministry decision to collect the public's gas masks, a project that only began at the beginning of 2007. Due to a lack of funds, the project was recently suspended and is expected to be renewed - following Sunday's government decision - in the coming weeks.

"This situation could be interpreted as neglect," a senior official told the Post. "If war breaks out and non-conventional weapons are used then we could find ourselves in a major crisis."…

The Olmert government stays in power in part because haredim provide it with a enough votes to hold on. Haredim do this just as they have with other popular and unpopular governments, not based on the competency of the particular government but on the amount of cash stuffed into haredi pockets.

If, God forbid, a war breaks out and if, God forbid, those missing gas masks come into play, the first place blame and political retribution should be directed is to Olmert and his cronies – including haredim – and it should not be forgotten who those haredim are and what yeshivot it is they whore for.

Comments

[avrohom]

YOU ARE A PIG AND AN ANTISEMITE! YOU DOG WHOSE ARRONACE KNOWS NO ENDS. YOUR G-DLESS IDOLAATRY BROUGHT THE WARS COULD NOT CARE FOR THE LIVES OF PEOPLE AND NOW YOU PIGGY DOG TURN THE TABLES....

[shmuel]

What the ...?
Calm down, Avraham. Just...chill.
Now, Shmarya, I understand your point, and I do agree that haredim will support whatever and whomever puts cash in their pockets, true enough, but this is the braindead decision of Olmert and his imbecilic buddies. That's where the blame lies. I would hope that another government, under, say, Bibi, or whoever, would never allow such a thing. Let's imagine that: Bibi is back in charge. He gets things straight with the gas masks. Everyone has one. Good. And haredim support his government and take his money. OK. It's thanks to Bibi people have masks (not haredim), and it's no thanks to Olmert if people do not have them (and again, nothing to do with haredim). You argue that haredim should drop his coalition because he's thoughtless towards the Israeli populace at large. Perhaps they should. But it's first and foremost an Olmert incompetence problem, yet again, not so much the dollar-hungry haredim. Agreed?

[Alex]

The thing is that the haredim are parasites who take off of the state and give back nothing but venom and selfrighteousness.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

YOU ARE A PIG AND AN ANTISEMITE! YOU DOG WHOSE ARRONACE KNOWS NO ENDS. YOUR G-DLESS IDOLAATRY BROUGHT THE WARS COULD NOT CARE FOR THE LIVES OF PEOPLE AND NOW YOU PIGGY DOG TURN THE TABLES....

Thank you for you clean and lucid thoughts on this important matter. Your ideas intrigue me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[Shmarya]

"But it's first and foremost an Olmert incompetence problem, yet again, not so much the dollar-hungry haredim. Agreed? "

And that is what I wrote. But the haredim allow this to exist, ensure that it exists, to fund their corrupt and failing yeshiva systems and nepotism. And we must not forget this.

[Alex]

Avrohom and Ed sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g first comes love then comes marriage, then comes osama bin laden in the babie carriage!

[Garnel Ironheart]

Remember Eli Cohen, the Israeli spy who was so successful he almost become the Syrian minister of defence?
I think Ehud Olmert is a Syrian spy and this is how they get us back.
Besides, who cares about gas masks? The next war won't use gas or chemicals. They'll start with basic rockets like last summer and progress to nukes, if anything.
Doesn't that sound reassuring?

[avrohom]

shmuel,

you have erev rav's poshey orchey yisroel who hate a frume yid with guts and *they* applauded the EXPUULSION F 9,000 JEWS who DEFENDED THE STATE OF ISRAEL FROM HAMSTAN and criticized the settlers, and right after the expulsion the kassams kept coming and the idiot of sctooty and ilk "new middleeast order" claim "kassam shmassams"when it killed people, and this brought aa wa that paralyzed half the country putting them in bunkers and breaking the deterrence of israel... so this antisemite will preach to frumme about WAR?? let him and his ilk bury their head in shame for the way they wrote on this blog 2005 and on...

[Alex]

our religious friends think that arabs kill jews because god sent thim to kill jews because we eat cheezeburgers!!!

our religious friends aren't getting degrees in international relations any time soon.

[shmuel]

I wrote:
"But it's first and foremost an Olmert incompetence problem, yet again, not so much the dollar-hungry haredim. Agreed? "

Shmarya responded: "And that is what I wrote. But the haredim allow this to exist, ensure that it exists, to fund their corrupt and failing yeshiva systems and nepotism. And we must not forget this."

My response: I know. But they've been doing this for 60 years. I cannot in good faith suddenly lay the blame for idiotic national decisionmaking at the doorstep of the haredim. They're just money-takers. They take from Labor and Likud. They'd take from Hamas if they had to. They have the Ministry of Education once in a while. That's about it. They have very little opinion or influence on the major issues Israel routinely faces. And they had no opinion or influence on whether Israel can figure out how to put gasmasks
into the hands of its citizens. I fault them for lots of things, but not this. It's out of their league. They have nothing to do with that incompetence. Shall we blame them for Olmert's miserable job in Lebanon last year? After all, they're part of his coalition! Yes they are, and so are other small, special-interest groups and parties. I don't fault them for Olmert's fiasco. I don't fault haredim for the Israeli army losing its edge. I blame...not sure who's to blame for the army falling down on the job, but one thing I do know: let's not blame the haredim, who just show up for a monthly welfare check. This other stuff is beyond them and they have little interest and no influence on it. Haredim allow it to exist, true, but so do all the other little piss-pot-poor parties and groups there.

[Shmarya]

I know. But they've been doing this for 60 years.

No, they've been doing it for about 25 to 30 years, getting worse each year of the process.

As for the rest of what you write, fine – as long as the haredim and those other small parties in the government only to get handouts get their gas masks next to last, right before Olmert gets his.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Maybe they need gas masks for smelly chulent. (Just kidding, I like that stuff, too.)