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In a presentation on Nov. 15, Rubin urged the military to invest greater efforts in civil defense, Middle East Newsline reported. He said Israel's adversaries — Hamas, Hizbullah and Syria — have accumulated an arsenal of 13,000 missiles and rockets that could hit cities and towns from the northern Israeli border to the southern city of Beersheba.

On Nov. 30, a senior Israeli commander acknowledged that the nation's missile defense systems were meant for the military rather than for the protection of civilians. Northern Command chief Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot warned Israelis against expecting that the missile defense network, particularly the new Iron Dome, would protect them from massive missile salvos from Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip.

"The systems are designed to protect military bases, even if this means that citizens suffer discomfort during the first days of battle," Eizenkot said in an address at Haifa University.

Officials have expressed concern over the military doctrine, saying this could spread panic during wartime. They said the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has failed to deploy the Iron Dome missile and rocket defense system, appeared to have approved the doctrine.

"Last time I checked on Google, we were still living in a democratic country, and the Army is obliged to act according to the government's decisions," Haim Yalin, chairman of the Eshkol regional council near the Gaza Strip, said.

For his part, Rubin said the goal of the Iranian axis was to fire missiles and rockets that would disrupt Israeli military mobilization and the economy as well as strike residential areas. He said the Iranian-supplied weapons have been enhanced to destroy military and critical targets throughout Israel.

"Accuracy means equality," Rubin said. "If we hit them, they can hit us."