MKs say government ‘abandoned’ citizens by failing to address missile threat

Members of the opposition hurled barbs and accusations at the government in a Knesset committee meeting over a damning report released by the state comptroller last week, which slammed numerous deficiencies in Israel’s home front preparedness against missile attacks.

However, no members of the government coalition heard those denunciations, as they had skipped the meeting of the State Control Committee, which focuses on issues relating to the state comptroller.

Knesset members from the Yesh Atid and Zionist Union political parties accused the government of “abandoning its citizens,” by failing to implement home front protection measures that are required by law.

According to the army, some 230,000 rockets of various sizes and warhead capacities are currently aimed toward Israel from a host of enemies.

Despite that looming threat, State Comptroller Yosef Shapiro’s report found that large segments of the population did not have access to proper protection against missile attacks. Residents of Israel’s north were found to be especially vulnerable.

“Though in recent years, great strides have been made in the area of preparedness and defending the civilian home front, in this review some disparities, some of them serious, came up,” Shapira said in his report.

Brig. Gen. (res.) Yossi Beinhorn from the State Comptroller’s Office warned that approximately one-third of the residents of northern Israel do not have access to a proper bomb shelter and that though many schools in southern Israel are protected against rockets, some remain vulnerable to attack.

Zionist Union MK, and former IDF general, Eyal Ben-Reuven said the next war in northern Israel is inevitable, but he predicts the government will only act to safeguard the area after there has been a tragedy.

“The state is abandoning its residents,” he said.

“After [the 2014 Gaza war] — with an emphasis on after — we fortified the south, and that’s fine. But maybe one time can we do something beforehand? One time? Then we can stop with the investigative committees after the fact,” Ben-Reuven said.

Beinhorn also noted that evacuation plans for civilian populations have not been fully realized and cannot yet be implemented.

‘But maybe one time can we do something beforehand? One time?’

According to Ze’ev Tzuk-Ram, the deputy head of the National Security Council, his office had begun working on the evacuation plans, but Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman put the kibosh on them.

The Defense Ministry, in response to Shapira’s report, noted that while some plans have yet to be fully developed, two other plans have been.

“The programs ‘Motel’ and ‘Safe Distance’… are evacuation plans that are the most detailed, coordinated and accurate that we have ever prepared to treat an evacuated population, almost to the level of the individual family,” the ministry said last week.

“Every community on the northern border and surrounding Gaza knows to evacuate itself in an emergency, and every government ministry (health, education, welfare, interior and more) knows what its role is,” the ministry said, noting that evacuation exercises have been conducted in the past year.

Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharar, the head of the committee, chastised the government for not having a representative at the meeting.

“In the next war, civilians will be abandoned — just as they were in the previous wars, and it’s shameful that not one MK from the coalition parties participated in the discussion,” she said.