Excerpts;
Government abandoned weak populations in north to fend for themselves. Welfare organizations fighting to feed and aid elderly, infirm, handicapped, and disadvantaged in north, almost without any help from state. Demand: State must establish ministry to deal with wartime protocol for civilians.
Where is the State? What really is the situation in the field? Activists from social organizations tell Ynet what they have done for the northern residents, and the difficult scenes they encountered. And they all turn to the government with the same question: Where are you?
Over the past month, dozens of organizations, mostly on a volunteer basis, have gone to the frontlines in the north to provide residents with basic necessities from water to food to installing air conditioners in bomb shelters.
“In effect, in the first two weeks of the war the government didn’t even wake up,” Dudi Zilbershlag, chairman of social organization ‘Israel-B’Yahad’, said, charging that the government completely neglected northern civilians.
“You would expect from the state that everything is planned, that if there is a war, you open up drawer 33, for example, labeled ‘War’ and you check to see what you do,” said another volunteer leader.”
There are infinite examples of the ramifications of the government’s inaction, especially during the first two weeks of the war. The first week, there was no plan for supplying food, and only the social organization “Israel-B’Yahad” set up food distribution stations, according to Zilbershlag.
“And even later when food reached the north, there was no one to distribute it,” he added. “Where was the Homefront Command?”
Although a month has passed since the beginning of the war, even now most of the food distributed up north is donated by the business sector, rather than the government. “If it wasn’t for the Supersol, the food problem wouldn’t be solved to this day,” he said.
Commentary;
For 6 years, the regime ignored the implications and consequences to hundreds of thousands of Jews living in Haifa, Nahariya, Safed and northwards of Ehud Barak’s leaving South Lebanon. The ignored Hezbollah’s wholesale stock up of 15,000 missiles and assumably thousands of rocket launchers. A blanket indictment should be issued against thegovernments of Barak, Sharon and Olmert for neglect, malfeasance and irresponsibility in office! MB