2000? So what. There are still sanitation and health regulations and standards that apply to your kitchen as well. What a lame excuse from the commander.

If these were civilian restaurants or kitchens they would be closed down immediately by the Ministry of Health inspectors. Can we assume that as these kitchens are still open, the army and the government understand that the health of our soldiers is not important.

I worked both here and in LA. I had to be in many kitchens. Believe me, that some of the fanciest kitchens of expensive restaurants in Beverly Hills were also rat and cockroach infested. It is so bad that I quit eating in restaurants. Over here, eat in restaurants? Some of the workers do not even wash their hands when they leave the rest rooms. I HAVE SEEN IT AND COMPLAINED! At one of the well known bakeries in Jerusalem, a friend of mine was fired since he insisted that the Arab workers wash their hands. He made a big stink and the boss fired him rather than deal with the Arabs. So you are surprised at rats and roaches in IDF bases? Open your beautiful blue eyes and see clearly what passes for cleanliness in your local restaurants and bakeries!!

Roaches need to be exterminated. Mice? They even show up suddenly on the 7th floor of a modern commercial steel and concrete office building - how they got there is a total mystery. Especially there is no food lying around.

Government entities should never succumb to lack of sanitation standards. How can regulations be enforced upon private restaurants and hospitals if our own government disregards them? Well I guess there is no mystery of why we have hepatisis a and polio pandemics if government kitchen workers work in such conditions, its safe to assume they don't wash their hands and dishes.

I wouldn't be surprised at that at all, after all I have also seen roaches running between aisles at many supermarkets here as well!

extermination with poisons - which are in themselves dangerous to human health.

No matter how hygienic your always going to get roaches, they are sneaky little bastards that always seem to find a way in everywhere only way to get rid of them is stamp on them if you can get close enough or use bug spray. Mice follow the food if the IDF doesn't keep the mess hall or the kitchens clean enough then the mice will come. Seriously how hygienic are IDF kitchen staff, its not a job anybody wants so their heart is not exactly in their work and they are reservists not professionals from restraints who understand about all this. The old saying rules are meant to be broken is true and they do break the rules. You add up the lack of things like personal hygiene and the bugs that can outsmart all humans and you get this.Its The officials in an air conditioned office criticise don't offer solutions.

In fact I think that the filthy places are simply a reflection of the commander. I have been in spotless kitchens run exactly to army protocols and in dirty kitchens where disipline was lax or even worse where the kitchen staff were bone lazy and always going on leave. It should be "the buck stops here for the commander".

I am proud to say I have never seen a cockroach until I came to Israel. Now I see them everywhere, often in grocery stores and when I point them out to the workers they look at me like Im the crazy one and do nothing about it. The only rats I've seen have been at the pet store and once inside the Bronx subway station. Again, in Israel they live in unity with street cats. Why is it that US, a country of 315 million people, can keep this problem under control and Israel a country of 7 million on a tiny piece of land, can't? Laziness? Lack of empathy for others health? Carelessness? Or are Israelis just filthy people by nature?