Marty Roberts: Staying Real in Israel
"The Marty Roberts Show"

It’s a part of life here, in Israel. You don’t really think about what it means, until you think about what it means! Looking at your kids or grandkids, not to mention your wife, trying on a gas mask is bizarre and scary…Welcome to Israel…

IDF to distribute gas masks today

Amid growing tensions, Home Front Command begins pilot program in Or Yehuda

Jerusalem Post online Yaakov Katz

Amid growing tension in the north, the IDF Home Front Command will begin a pilot program to redistribute gas masks in Or Yehuda on Sunday.

Under the plan – drawn up by Col. Yossi Sagiv, head of the Home Front Command’s Gas Mask and Protection Kits Department – the masks will be returned to private homes by the Israel Postal Company, which beat out seven other companies in a Defense Ministry-issued tender in late 2009. Gas masks were collected from private homes starting in 2007 by a private delivery company.

The distribution is slated to take three years. Officials said that after the distribution is completed in Or Yehuda, the IDF will review the operation, implement corrections and improvements and then start distributing the kits in other parts of the country, based on operational considerations of which area is under a more immediate threat.

The public will receive the same rubber gas mask that it had in the past with an improved filter – more effective against chemical and biological threats Israel faces – but without the syringe of Atropine that was in past kits.

Under the plan, Postal Company representatives will contact homeowners and schedule a time to visit and deliver the gas masks required by the family. Each family will be asked to pay a nominal sum of less than NIS 20. The courier will also help fit the gas masks to the family members and explain how to use them. People that prefer not to pay the fee can travel to a distribution center, that will be located in each city, to pick up their gas masks.

Are we playing a hi-stakes game of chicken here? Who will blink first? Syria? Iran? The United States? I hope that it is NOT Israel…The times, they just keep on getting interestinger and interestinger…


Iranian President Ahmadinejad

Iran in the cross-hairs

MESS Report–Middle East Security Survey

Amos Harel & Avi issacharoff

If anyone still had doubts about an imminent conflict with Iran, it was removed this week by the arrival of the U.S. army chief in Israel and the threats from the Iranian president and Hezbollah secretary-general.

Something sinister is in the air.

If the international community’s collision course with Tehran leads to harsh sanctions meant to halt its nuclear program, the spring and summer months will be especially sensitive. It would be impossible to rule out a scenario in which the increasing tension leads to all-out open war. Tehran and Jerusalem regularly exchange threatening messages via various channels, but with Beirut, Gaza and Damascus in the middle, the situation is liable to get out of control.

At a time when Iran is deliberately inflaming the situation, the U.S. is seeking to cool things down. Interestingly and strangely enough, the two rivals seem to have a similar read on Israel’s current role in the drama. Both believe Israel could lose patience and implement its policy of “a leadership gone mad” that former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took great pride in during the Second Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. This belief serves as the backdrop for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s remarks implying that Israel is readying for war (which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has steadfastly denied) and for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s threats to attack strategic infrastructure in Israel.

The possibility of unleashing Israel’s “bull in a china shop” approach is also behind the recent flurry of visits from senior American officials, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who arrives next week. The visits are intended to explain to the Netanyahu government why an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities is unwanted at the moment ? and also to clarify what Israel seeks in return for sitting quietly and allowing the Obama administration to build an international coalition to impose sanctions on Iran.

Mullen landed here at the beginning of the week – on the hottest day of Israel’s winter – with an unambiguous warning. His visit opened with a brief press conference at the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, to which journalists were summoned on short notice, and that was characterized by something of a culture clash. Some of the Israeli journalists showed up in T-shirts, and Mullen seemed a bit surprised by the casual atmosphere and by the strident tone of the questions.

Despite this, he stuck to the message he was sent here to convey: that he is concerned by the “unexpected consequences” of an Israeli attack on Iran. Mullen’s remarks, made in public even before his first meeting with his Israeli hosts, immediately dictated the tone of Israeli media would adopt to cover his visit.

In recent weeks, especially since its announcement that it has begun production of 20-percent-enriched uranium, Iran has not even bothered to claim its nuclear program is intended for peaceful means, as it had in the past. Iran’s true intentions are clear to everyone from Washington to London to Beijing. China, however, is more concerned about its oil supply than the Iranian threat, and sees its refusal to impose sanctions as an effective means of challenging U.S. power.

It’s possible the concern over an Israeli strike has come too soon. Israel will only attack as a last resort. But if Iran continues its enrichment and the U.S. fails to consolidate sanctions, or if the sanctions are ineffective down the line, the military option becomes more relevant. In this case, Israel also has more legitimacy to act in self-defense and cannot be blamed for the failure of diplomacy.

This week, Nasrallah broadcast another message from his bunker and, for the first time, mentioned the “axis of evil.” He warned of a four-pronged attack against Israel by Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas ? which those parties have avoided outlining explicitly until now in an effort to maintain the appearance of independence. At the same time, Nasrallah presented Hezbollah’s planned response to Israel’s “Dahiya doctrine” (a term used to describe a conventional army targeting civilian infrastructure used by terrorists) by saying his group would destroy Ben-Gurion International Airport and attack Tel Aviv.

Has AIPAC crossed the line?…Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has enough problems dealing with the Obama administration and the Iranian nuclear threat…The last thing he needs is an American-Israel lobby supporting positions contrary to the current Israeli government…Are there rough waters ahead for US/Israel relations?…Official American policy statements by Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Clinton and others are sending up warning flags…Will Washington wake up in time?…All this and more on “The Marty Roberts Show”…Listen to the show below…

Subscribe to This Podcast

Listen to the Show Here…

 

 MR051509:"Misguided American Jews": Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A special report…Who was this monster?…What did he do?…Why was he killed?…Who killed him?…The Iran-Syria-Lebanon-Israel puzzle…What are the likely repercussions?…What’s next?…All this and more on “The Marty Roberts Show”……Listen to the show below…

Subscribe to This Podcast

Listen to the Show Here…

 MR21908:"The Imad Mughniyeh Assasination": Download