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Source: http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=\ForeignBureaus\archive\200302\FOR20030225e.html
Israel Has Spent Billions on Homeland Defense
(CNSNews) Julie Stahl - • Israel has spent billions of dollars on its homeland defense preparations and is probably the best prepared country in the world to deal with a possible missile attack and/or non-conventional warfare, said Colonel Gilead Shenhar, senior advisor to the Home Front Defense (HFC) Command, at a briefing for the press and diplomats at the Institute for Contemporary Affairs of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs on Monday. •The HFC is designed not only to deal with the threat of surface to surface missiles - whether conventional or non-conventional - but can also deal with rocket or artillery strikes, for instance, from across the northern border, mass disasters like earthquakes - whether at home or elsewhere in the region - or terrorism, in war time, here or abroad. •In the case of a missile attack, Shenhar said, Israel's defense is many-layered: deterrence; early warning to make sure Israelis have gas masks on before a missile hits; active defense of Israel's Arrow and U.S. Patriot anti-missile shields; and passive defense to deal with the consequences of a missile strike. "These are answers that we didn't have before," Shenhar said. •Part of those preparations have included refreshing more than three and a half million gas mask protection kits for Israelis. Every person in Israel from Israelis to diplomats to illegal workers is to be equipped with a mask. •Shenhar could not say exactly how much Israel has invested in homeland defense since it is spread out in so many different areas, but he said it is most likely in the billions of dollars.