Israel Matzav

Deja vu all over again: Government distributing gas masks

Although I have not yet received a notice from them, the government started to distribute gas masks (or as AFP so delicately calls them 'biochemical war protection kits') to the Israeli public.

"We have equipped ourselves with millions of protection kits against biological or chemical warfare, and a massive distribution programme for the population started today," Vilnai told army radio.

"Every family in Israel can receive these kits at home and be instructed on how to use them by Israeli postal workers, at an average cost of 25 shekels (five dollars), or pick them up free of charge at post office counters."

NIS 25 is actually a bit more than $6 these days (current exchange rate is about NIS 3.70 to the dollar) and I doubt those kits are going to do a whole lot of good in the event of a nuclear attack, God forbid.

But Vilnai emphasized the distribution of the protection kits was "not linked to any precise current threat."

The Israeli government decided on January 5 to distribute eight million new gas masks, one for each citizen, by 2013 and already distributed gas masks to 70,000 residents of Or Yehuda, near Tel Aviv in February.

Israel has long feared chemical or biological weapons may be used against it in a future conflict involving the Jewish state's arch-foes, Iran or Syria.

Our previous gas masks expired when the government told us to open them at the beginning of the US attack on Iraq in 2003. Those gas masks were finally collected in the summer of 2007.

I hope the new ones are at least smaller - the old ones took an entire shelf in a large closet to store (along with required emergency supplies like bottles of fresh water).

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:05 PM