Omer Zak shared information about an experiment during the first Gulf War in 1991 when beepers was distributed to deaf persons in order to alert them to take shelter against scud attacks. The experiment was successful and the Israel Association of the Deaf has been lobbying since then to make beepers a part of the civilian defense budget. However, due to budgetary considerations, the government did not include it in their budget. This set off a controversy within the deaf Israeli community when it was announced that the civilian defense command has agreed to issue more expensive gas masks (with blowers) to Ultra-Orthodox Jews so that they do not have to shave off their beards. One person responding to the Jewish-Deaf discussion on the Internet pointed out that the reason the Ultra-Orthodox Jews succeeded in getting the more expensive masks is “because they have the political clout to do so. Since the Deaf Community doesn’t, it has a harder time getting what it needs. In the February 5th issue of the Ma’ariv publication, it was written that the inexpensive gas mask costs 350NIS and the more expensive gas mask with a blower costs more than 2000NIS. And the cost of the beeper? Just 430NIS…