Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited the IDF Home Front Command. The Prime Minister was accompanied on the visit by Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, C-O-S, Gaby Ashkenazi, Home Front Commander, Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan, Prime Minister's office Dir.-Gen., Ra'anan Dinur, and other officials from the Defense Ministry, the IDF and the Prime Minister's Office.
Prime Minister Olmert evaluated the Command's abilities and the adjustments made in accordance to the lessons learned from the Second Lebanon War. The Prime Minister was briefed as to the threats facing the Israeli Home Front, the available responses, troop deployment and methods of operation and was even present at a Command exercise.
Prime Minister Olmert thanked those present, and at the visit's conclusion made the following remarks:
"I received a very impressive briefing which drew an encouraging picture on what has been happening on the Home Front in the two years since the Second Lebanon War. Future wars, if they should breakout, heaven forbid, will be different than those of the past, even than the Second Lebanon War. There will no longer exist a situation in which the war is handled on some distant anonymous front, while life goes on as usual in the big cities. The war will also come to the cities and homes of Israel's citizens, and our enemy's goal will be to attack the home front. In deed, they are arming with weapons intended for the civil population. The role of the Home Front Command, in such a scenario, will be more crucial than during Israel's previous wars.
The State of Israel has no intention of conquering lands in order to occupy them and will focus on preventing border infiltration and on as quick and as decisive a conclusion as possible of the battle. In the Second Lebanon War we possessed more massive tools and ability, which we abstained from using because we fought an organization and not a sovereign state. If Lebanon should become a Hezbollah state, than we will have no constraints in this respect. So it is with any country that wants to attack us. What we will be responsible for is to bring about a quick conclusion, at minimal costs, while utilizing our relative advantages.
One of the most important things is to minimize the public's anxiety. To my chagrin, to date, thousands of missiles have been fires at Israel's population centers. We do not have to frighten ourselves too much about threats. At the end of the day the imaginary threat is more demonic than it really is. It is upon you to cope with the gap between imagination and reality. During battle you will have to create the correct balance between providing services to the civilian population, creating the correct atmosphere of calm and activating the local administration. In many aspects the Home Front Command will be the first and most important in any future battle and I am impressed a revolution in thinking and a great advance in preparedness."