Gimme Shelter

For all its bluster, the Israeli leadership seems to have done little to shore up its home defenses in the event that an attack on Iran spurs a barrage of rockets from the Islamic Republic's well-armed comrades in the neighborhood. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Israeli military officers say Iran and its allies in Lebanon and Gaza have tens of thousands of rockets that can reach anywhere in the Jewish state—indicating that a conflict would put all Israeli civilians on the front line for the first time since the 1991 Gulf War.

"The situation is terrible. People are really worried," said Shlomo Maslawy, a Tel Aviv Council member who complained about a shortage of public shelters in the city's poorer neighborhoods. "Who will gain entry to the shelters? If something happens, there will be a war between the residents."

Focused on building up offensive capabilities and deterrence has left one in five Israelis with access to bomb shelters, according to Nissan Zeevi, a Home Front Preparedness spokesman, and fewer than half can get suitable gas masks should there be a chemical strike.

Israel and her hawkish stateside allies keep harping on putting forward a "credible threat" against Iran, but the lack of serious preparation does not lend credibility to Israel's threats. Instead, it bolsters the theory that the Israeli leaders' hawkishness masked a bluff aimed at international support and U.S. action.