In about 12 hours from now a siren will sound signaling the high point of the nationwide Homefront Command war preparedness drill. At 11:00 Tuesday the sirens will go off across the country and civilians are supposed to take shelter in safe rooms, bomb shelters, building stairwells, or simply lie flat on the ground near their cars. And just like every previous time, tomorrow’s siren will find most Israelis without the faintest clue of what they’re supposed to do when the sirens go off. A very large number of people in coffee shops, restaurants and in the streets will simply stand to attention thinking the siren represents either Remembrance Day, Holocaust Day, or some other day they forgot was today. Others will run in panic searching for a safe room. Some motorists will stop on the highways, get out of their cars and bow their heads in respect. Some buses and cars will stop, others won’t, and hooting will drown out the sirens in many places. Haredim in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem won’t have a clue what’s going on because nobody has prepared them for any of this, they don’t watch TV, they don’t listen to Army or Israel Radio, and their closed-circuit Kosher Internet has no mention of the drill. And besides, the rabbis have promised no missiles will fall on their areas.
From a quick look at the Homefront Command’s English website, I’ve gathered together the following tips on how to behave during a rocket attack. The instructions however, leave a few open questions:
From Homefront Command:
If you are in a building when the siren sounds immediately enter the Residential Secure Space (MAMAD), and close the steel door.
Q: What if others didn’t make it in time? Do I open the steel door for them and thus risk exposure to rocket shrapnel? Surely they should have run faster, no?
If there is no MAMAD in the building, enter the room that is farthest from the direction from which the missile fire threat is coming,
Q: How do we find out which direction the missile is coming from? What if several countries or terrorist groups rocket us from different directions simultaneously? What room do we then choose? In any case, how do we figure out what direction are we facing at any given time? And what if we’re outside, say, walking the dog, and we hear a siren. How do we know a) which direction we’re facing? b) which direction the missile is coming from? c) what if the siren totally messes with the dog and he starts running in every direction? And d) what about those new missiles that can change direction in mid-flight that we’ve been hearing about lately? Are we to move around to a different room every time the missile zigs? Maybe IDF Homefront Command should give us all compasses or GPS devices. Wouldn’t it be great if we were given GPS machines so that we could track the route of the missiles from their point of origin in real time, AND we could also figure out which direction we’re facing so that we could dodge the rockets?
