"No matter how we end the Lebanon front, or the Iran front, if we have lost a city in the state of Israel. You don't even know how long we'll remain in this grim reality. Do you think we will stay here?
If you expect that in another month 16,000 people will remain like this, there will be only 10 people. Only those who cannot go. Because already now they remember the booms everyday.
And you keep telling me, "It's a victory for Hezbollah if they evacuate." Guys, Hezbollah will say it won no matter what. And its victory will be that there is no city left in the state of Israel.
Whether they evacuate or not, that's not my consideration. I have 4,700 apartments without standard protection or without any protection at all, what kind of victory is that to us?
You haven't provided us with protection until now. Can't do it? Get us out of danger. You don't send a soldier into battle without a flak jacket, right? Why place a civilian on the front line without protection?
This is the bare minimum. This is basic relationship between a state and its citizens, to provide us with security. You have failed.
I have 2 daughters whom I need to take out for 2 hours of activity in a shelter, and I pray every time on way there. And this is how our residents live. Do any of you know what a missile in zero second means? With children at home, with disabled, with special needs, with elderly.
How do you expect the man from last week who was hit by a missile on the third floor, at the age of 80, to reach a shelter in 10 seconds? How did you expect the poor bus driver to stop the bus, let the passengers off, and reach a shelter? I still have head injuries to the head from the last incidents.
And we should say, "Thank you, we got off lightly." If that bus had been full of people, I would have had a mass casualty event, without even the medical response to treat it. Without aerial evacuation, without intensive care or ambulance.
Are you out of your minds? What are we? What kind of citizens are we? What, do I need to call Hezbollah for a ceasefire, so I can evacuate them by helicopter? Do I need to speak with Hezbollah instead of my own state?"
Mayor of Kiryat Shmona, addressing the failures of Israel to protect its citizens.
