Israeli children learning to use their new gas masks.

>> UPDATE: Israel Would Strike Iran to Gain a Few Years, Oren Says

Tonight in Israel, war with Iran seems closer than ever. Top Iranian officials are threatening to annihilate Israel again. Senior Israeli officials are telling people to get their gas masks and prepare for the worst.

“With the US sending clear public signals to Israel that it is opposed to military action now against Iran, and a cacophonous debate on the matter in Israel, senior Iranian officials continue to threaten Israel with destruction,” reports the Jerusalem Post. “Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that he was confidant ‘the fake Zionist (regime) will disappear from the landscape of geography,’ Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported.”

“Matan Vilnai, who is stepping down as home front defence minister to become ambassador to China, said the country was ‘ready as never before,'” reports the UK Telegraph. “‘The assessments are for a war that will last 30 days on a number of fronts,’ he told the Maariv newspaper. ‘It could be that there will be less fatalities, but it could be there will be more, that is the scenario that we are preparing for according to the best experts.’ Speculation is growing that Israel is planning a unilateral attack on Iran’s nuclear programme – or that it is using the question to increase pressure on Barack Obama to launch an American strike….And in Israel, critics have warned that the country is not ready for the promised Iranian retaliation, pointing to a shortage of gas masks, for example.”