Special to WorldTribune.com

TEL AVIV — The government has acknowledged that protection against
missile attacks does not extend to all Israelis.

Officials said Israel’s missile defense umbrella remains uneven. They
acknowledged that the upper middle class and wealthy Israelis enjoy far
greater protection against missile attacks than the poor.

“A third of Israeli residents have no protection at all — no safe zones in their apartment, no bomb shelters in their buildings, and no functioning public shelters nearby,” Home Front Defense Minister Gilad Erdan said.

In an address to the Institute for National Security Studies on July 25, Erdan became the highest-level official to acknowledge a huge disparity in
civil defense efforts in Israel. He contrasted those without any means of protection from missile and rocket attacks to those whose apartments were
fortified against such a scenario. Since 1992, Israeli buildings have been required to include rooms designed to withstand a missile attack.

“Thirty percent have safe zones in their apartments,” Erdan said. “This
is an intolerable gap.”

Over the last decade, the government has repeatedly delayed or reduced
efforts to protect poor Israeli communities from missile and rocket attacks.
Officials cited Finance Ministry opposition to legislation that would spend
tens of millions of dollars to fortify apartment buildings near the Gaza
Strip, which often came under daily attacks by Palestinian gunners.

Officials said the government has established a Cabinet committee to
bolster civil defense both near the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. But they said
Israel has not advanced since the war with Hizbullah in 2006, when 4,500
missiles rockets fell on the Jewish state.

“Who lacks protection: the weaker sections of society,” Erdan said.
“There is a governmental and moral obligation to deal with this gap.”

The address came amid warnings by the government and military of an
Iranian-sponsored multi-front war against Israel. They said Israel could
come under a daily barrage of more than 1,000 missile and rockets from such
Iranian proxies as Hamas, Hizbullah and Syria.

“There’s a different [higher] level of accuracy in a growing number of
projectiles, and there is no effective way to stop the development and
arrival of these weapons,” Erdan said. “We have to take vital infrastructure
into consideration. Otherwise, it will be difficult to maintain operational
continuity in a future war.”

  defense minister says, Gaza Strip, Gilad Erdan, Institute for National Security Studies, Rich-poor gap on missile defense in Israel: Umbrella favors the wealthy, West Bank