Is Israeli Home-Front Sufficiently Prepared for Wide Conflict?

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Missile defense is not only military systems. The preparedness of the civilian home front in a conflict situation also constitutes an important issue. This was one of the themes discussed during the IAMD – the 8th Israel Missile and Air Defense Conference organized by iHLS, IMDA and ISAA. 

At his presentation, BG (R) Meir Elran asserted that he sees the military front and the civilian front as two interdependent elements. The success of the military front is dependent on the resilience of the civilian front.

Elran was Deputy Head of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate, IDF, and now serves as a senior researcher at the INSS.

Basing his claim on his own research on the subject, Elran warns that the preparedness of the civilian front to a wide conflict is medium to low. 

Nevertheless, there are differences between regions in Israel, and undoubtedly, the southern region which has been target to intensive attacks from the Gaza Strip during recent years, is relatively more prepared than other regions in the country.

One of the causes of this state of affairs is the low public awareness to the consequences of a wide conflict. The reason to the low public awareness is, according to Elran, the fact that the public is not told about the situation on purpose. This puts preparedness on a low grade in the list of national priorities.