At 10:00 AM local time, sirens sounded throughout the nation of Israel. The IDF Home Front Command authorized the siren as part of its five day nation wide training exercise. Israelis were instructed to locate the nearest bomb shelter or room capable of protecting people from missile attack. We went to the nearest intersection to both hear the siren and see how people would react. It's fair to say there wasn't a great deal of urgency in most of the people we saw. In fact, most people went about with their daily life. In some of the local schools, it was a different story. There were scenes of kids hiding under their desks or heading down to the bomb shelter. For those of us who grew up in the days of the cold war, it was reminiscent of the drills U.S. school kids went through because of the Russian nuclear threat. But the siren here in Israel today and their national drill is a sober reminder that the real thing over here seems just a matter of time.
Many analysts believe the real thing - a future war - will likely involve Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and especially Iran. In fact, just today, Iran announced that it was putting six thousand more centrifuges online. That's just one more indication of Iran's menacing nuclear goals. Both Iran and Syria possess a formidable missile arsenal. Their missiles can hit anywhere in Israel and many experts believe the next war will be a war of missiles. That means the home front becomes the front line. Hence the nationwide drill.
Here's how National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer put it, "In a future war, it will be much safer to live in Nahariya or Shlomi than in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. Because I foresee that during the opening blow, hundreds of missiles will rain on Israel. No place in the country will be outside the range of Syria and Hezbollah's missiles and rockets."
Just last month, Israelis celebrated Purim, the holiday commemorating God's deliverance of the Jewish people from Haman, the Persian official. Haman planned to annihilate the Jews. Today, that diabolical ambition still lives today in modern day Persia, Iran and with a modern day Haman, Ahmadinejad. But many people believe God will once again save His people and thwart the plans of these modern day Hamans.
But until that time, the drills go on.