Cash-strapped gov't scales back safe-room plan - Haaretz

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Tue., February 19, 2008 Adar1 13, 5768

Israel Time: 02:16 (EST+7)

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Cash-strapped gov't scales back safe-room plan

By Barak Ravid, Mijal Grinberg and Nadav Shragai

A special ministerial forum yesterday approved a plan to fortify thousands of homes that are situated within a 4.5-kilometer range of the Gaza Strip against rocket fire. The plan has to be approved by the cabinet at its weekly meeting.

Despite the initial intention to provide complete fortification for 8,000 homes in the area, as was first reported in Haaretz yesterday, it was decided that the available budget of NIS 350 million would cover only partial safety measures for that number of homes. Instead, it was decided to begin by fully fortifying 3,600 homes over the next two years. The plan calls for adding a safe room measuring 9 square meters to each home.

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The 4.5-kilometer range was determined in accordance with the Iron Dome rocketd-defense system that is under development, whose response time will not allow it to intercept rockets at a range that is under four kilometers.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert presided over the forum, whose other members included Defense Minister Ehud Barak and his deputy Matan Vilnai; Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, Finance Minister Roni Bar-On, Housing Minister Zeev Boim, and Pensioners Affairs Minister Rafi Eitan, as well as experts from the Home Front Command and Rafael military industries.

Officials in Olmert's bureau said he intends to secure more funding to try and fortify the remaining homes that are not covered by Iron Dome's umbrella within two to three years.

Olmert said at the meeting that the plan does not provide a comprehensive solution to rocket fire, "but it is a reasonable and worthy solution under the circumstances. The Iron Dome system is supposed to take care of the remaining gap."

Western Negev council heads, who demonstrated outside the Prime Minister's Office yesterday in a demand for full protection, welcomed the decision but said the true measure of success will be when rocket fire on the region is brought to an end.

Qassams continued to target the Western Negev yesterday, with two fired at Sderot around noon. One rocket fell in the yard of a house near a kindergarten. Several people suffered anxiety attacks, one woman was hospitalized, and buildings were damaged.

Meanwhile, the regulars camped out at the protest tent set up by Sderot residents near the PMO, in Jerusalem, were joined yesterday by hundreds of children from the regional councils of Sha'ar Hanegev and Eshkol. The children stood across from the PMO armed with red umbrellas, and whenever Sderot's security chief, Alon Davidi, reported another Qassam fall in the southern town, the umbrellas opened to demonstrate the sort of protection residents have in the face of the Color Red alarms, and the rockets that follow.

The government discussions taking place opposite were of no account to the children, nor the adults accompanying them. Sderot parents' committee chair Benny Markovitz said that his 11-year-old son wants to know when his father will go bike-riding with him again. Another parent, Eran, said there were arguments at home about whether and where to move: "The kids actually want to stay, whereas my wife and I wish to leave." Eden Lieberman of Kibbutz Nir Am spoke about her lost childhood, and asked the prime minister to "do something" for "a little quiet." Eyal, 16, from Nir Am said his parents were "going out of their minds": "How can you live with a Color Red alarm 50 times in one week? You try it here in the center [of the country]. Let's see how long you last."

Teachers who accompanied their pupils from Sderot yesterday rejected suggestions that it was inappropriate to involve children in protest activity. There is no better civics lesson, they said, and these children deal with the reality of Qassam rockets on a daily basis."

A teacher named Rivka had an intriguing suggestion: "We talk with the children in Sderot a lot about setting a personal example. We also strive to set one for them. Perhaps some of the country's elected officials could move to Sderot, if only for a week, to provide a personal example for residents there, and also to experience what we go through every day. Maybe there will even be ministers who are willing to live with us in Sderot, even if only for a few days?"

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