To All Publishers, Editors, Journalists and Media Personnel,

 Re: The "Color Red" Smart Phone Application: Understanding the Citizens of Israel

 I strongly urge all journalists and other members of the media to download the smart phone application, "Color Red", to your personal smart phones so that you can experience the situation that the citizens of Israel endure daily.

 The app sends instant alerts of alarm/siren soundings, firings and ground impacts of rockets and mortar-bomb attacks directed at the residents of Israel in real time. The app will help illuminate the incomprehensible daily routine in Israel. It will send automatic alerts to your cell phone device just as thousands of Israelis experience it – thereby allowing you to understand what the children, women and elderly staying in shelters go through during rocket attacks.

I have no doubt that using this application will help you identify with the suffering of the citizens in Israel. The frequency of the alerts demonstrates the tremendous restraint Israel exercises, and illustrates the intensity of the attacks that millions of Israeli citizens experience day and night.

 My hope is that this will help foster an understanding of Israel’s right to defend itself and its citizens by all means necessary. Please note that the application is a voluntary project for the residents of Israel and is intended to serve the residents of southern Israel, and is in Hebrew only. It does not provide alerts for rockets fired on other areas under attack, such as Tel Aviv and the Greater Tel Aviv area.

 Gila Gamliel

Deputy Minister

In the Prime Minister's Office