… 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.