Duck! And Cover! (Updated Israel - Iran video/audio version)

(As I write these lines, my IDF/police beeper is buzzing over Kassam rocket strikes into Sderot like your head does the morning after the night before way too many arak and beer chasers...)

First up on this morning's soggy docket: Uzi Mahanimi with a Sunday Times of London item about Israel's bon ton digging in with their very own nuke-proofed bomb shelters:

AMID mounting fears that Iran is planning to obliterate their country, wealthy Israelis are shelling out on underground nuclear shelters in the gardens of their luxury homes.

The shelters, which cost at least £60,000 for a bargain-basement version, are built to withstand radioactive fallout, have fortified walls and doors and generate their own electricity and decontaminated air. Defence experts estimate that hundreds of such bunkers, many fitted with all modern conveniences such as bedrooms, kitchens and bathrooms, have already been built in private homes across the country and demand is soaring.

(...)Leading the stampede to the nuclear bunker is Shari Arison, the country’s wealthiest woman, estimated to be worth about £2.7 billion. The Israeli media have reported that she has already made preparations for Armageddon by building two sophisticated underground structures. One is at her home in Tel Aviv, the other in the garden of her holiday villa in Bnei Zion village.

(...)Firms specialising in the manufacture of such shelters are booming.

Haha, get it?! "Booming." That Uzi - whatta' kidder! BTW, Arison owns Israel's Bank Hapoalim; at least now I know where all my usurious ATM fees are being siphoned off to...

And our Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert? What say he? From this morning's Jerusalem Post:

(T)he international community is "hardly doing anything" to stop Iranian nuclear ambitions and its ongoing threats to annihilate Israel, which he said echoed statements coming out of Germany just before the start of World War II.

Turn on your speakers, click here or on Bert
and get a musical surprise!

(Stage whisper) Pssst, Bert - er', sorry, Ehud? How 'bout first dealing with Sderot, where the hits just keep on coming. From Ynet:

A Qassam rocket was fired Sunday morning at 7:40 a.m. from northern Gaza Strip at the southern town of Sderot and landed at a sheep farm. Some of the sheep were injured and several people were treated for shock by Magen David Adom paramedics.

On Saturday, while hundreds of Sderot residents demonstrated outside Defense Minister Amir Peretz's house against the unending firing of Qassam rockets at the city, Palestinian gunmen fired two rockets at the western Negev. One of the rockets landed in the community of Nativ Ha'asara, and the other in Palestinian territory.

Sderot children in classroom taking part in current
Kassam rocket attack drill. (Circa 2004-5-6, etc.)


American schoolchildren taking part in Cold War-era
classroom drill against nuclear threat. (Circa early 1960's)

I have followed the ongoing Sderot rocket crisis extensively (maybe even more than Olmert, going by results). Here's a link to the most recent item, including video and audio clips, photos, and written content, "daisychaining" back to earlier exclusive coverage.