of earthquake damage.

if your rented apartment building is within regulations for earthquake readiness or not?

impliment change by comparing our wonderful country to a hypothetical "well managed country" that exists nowhere in the world? Which country is that, exactly? Or is this just more self-hatred and hyper-criticism. Perhaps we should be as well managed as the United States during huricaine Katrina? Or maybe we should impliment good ole' fashion German efficiency and the values that go along with that? We do pretty damn well for all of our problems, thank you Dr. Many of our buildings were erected hastily in the shadow of the holocaust to house hundreds of thousands of immigrants. Our budgets have been stretched by the trillions the arabs have forced us to spend on the military. Change is good, but let's recognize that where we are is pretty fantastic under the circumstances.

If your building is 20 years or older, odds are it does not meet the specifications. The only way you can find out is to go to the building department of the city (call the moked at 106, they'll give you the number), and you'll have to do a lot of investigating. See if you can get a copy of the plans, and find out who the contractor was as well as which building inspector who signed off. Then get a civil engineer to check the building plans to see if they meet the specifications, and then you have to interview the inspector and contractor to see if the inspector really did check the site and the contractor really did build to the code. Good luck.

and they destroy AND KILL Arabs and their pseudo-"leftist" allies and will bring down the filth that the Arabs built on our Temple Mount.

That's very funny. Our politicians can't be bothered with earthquakes, they're busy thinking up schemes to give away the country. We don't even have an educational system ..... "If Israel were a well managed country ..." has to be the quote of the week.

The world is full of risks. Engineers try to assess these risks and then give themselves breathing space. In the case of earthquakes they might say 'we will build building to withstand the largest earthquake that will hit in a 200 year span'. This means that statisticly within 200 years the building will fail to an earthquake. But there are earthquakes that are bigger and rarer but still can occur. California and building codes may protect buildings from stronger earthquakes but there still are earthquakes that are too strong for those standards. The strongest earthquakes measured are close to 9 on the 'Richter' scale, but these have been measured for less than 100 years, so we probably did not even measure the strongest earthquake in a 300 year frequency. I live in Wyoming and according to specialists, when Yellowstone will blow it wont matter how far away you are from there it will spell desaster. Israeli buildings are obviously strong enough to withstand modurate earthquakes, when it comes to large earthquakes the standards are, in the end all relative. Robert Tilden Geologist

for handouts...israel does not do much except whine...whine about how we are broke...whine about every and anything...i hope this earthquake swallows the knesset whole with all its dirty whining politicians...into a bottomless pit..dont worry..we will get along with out you

you ugly idiot. Your hate speech is so stupid that you cannot understand an earthquake would not only affect Arabs and mosques...

That Ynet's offices will be the first ones to be change in a pile of rubble , that would be a good point to start all over again.

...and may such an earthquake take that vulgar, gold domed house of HaSatan down into the pit with them!

Olmert's proclamation of giving part of this holy earth to the Arabs or Israel is done for.

into a survival pod. Have a little tent and bottled water and non-perishable food and a change of clothes for each family member and medicines and personal items in the trunk in a box or chest or suitcase that can be taken out when the car is serviced so the items are not stolen. Be prepared, as the Boy Scouts say. There is a BIG earthquake that is coming the Bible says that will be felt all over the earth. The plates of the earth are cracked like a marble baked in an oven cracks. The BIG earthquake will cause the cities of the earth to fall. So be prepared. Remember to hide from a strong wind, run from or into a high rise from a flood, and in an earthquake it is a good idea to have a clumping bamboo patch in your yard if you have one. Bamboo roots are close to the surface of the ground and are like a net if youstand in the small bamboo patch.Japanese have used this idea for many generations since there are earthquakes there. "Heavenly bamboo" is a pretty multicolored variety that would look nice in a garden. I planted it around homes and RV parks where I have lived to help stabilized the house in an earthquake.

who live in those buildings. As said Marie Antoinette, 'if they don't have bread, let them eat cake' .

IF ISRAEL WERE A WELL MANAGED COUNTRY, THE PLAN TO DEAL WITH EARTHQUAKES WOULD HAVE BEEN LAUNCHED A LONG TIME AGO. I think that says it all Israel is not a well managed country in any way shape or form and if it was better managed it could save fortunes because billions are wasted the way things are done, life in the country would be more efficiant. Terrorism wouldnt have the same impact we wouldnt talk for years then decide on to little to late. Israel has modern recources at hand but it has a backwards poloitical system which can be barley called a democracy because of the way it works based on coalitions and governments colapse very quickly if the coalitions dont hold so we have another set of ellections. In many areas of society Israel acts like a backward society at times. Public services like the post office they have different opening hours every day of the week why cant they have something as simple as regular working hours. When the government isnt screwing things up the unions are they still have the kind of power they did in the 50s, to survive in the modern world Israel needs to limit their power. In the US the syetem would never allow a national gteacher strike thats been going on for 2 months and still no sign of ending. The country needs to be pulled down and rebuilt piece by piece to create a modern, efficient country designed to work well in the 21st century.

And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleft in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, so that there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel; yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah; and HaShem my G-d shall come, and all the holy ones with Thee. ZECHARIYAH 14: 4-5