I'd like to share with you a post I saw on Facebook this evening of someone who was evacuated from Beit Meir, a Moshav in the Jerusalem - Tel Aviv corridor, during the wee hours of Friday morning, together with his children and pregnant wife.
For the record, for those who still delude themselves that this is about the 'territories,' Beit Meir is within the green line that constituted Israel before 1967.
Israel Radio reported on Friday that seven homes in Beit Meir were destroyed. But that understates the terror that the residents suffered on Thursday night. The terrorists purposely set the fires to block all the exits from the Moshav, so that the people had no place to flee until the firefighters arrived and cleared a path for them.
Here's the post. More after the post.
At around 2am this evening, terrorists set fire to my small mountain village of Beit Meir. They lit multiple blazes, surrounding the only exit from our moshav with a gulf of flames.
As you can imagine, this made it exceedingly difficult for myself, my pregnant wife, and two kids to escape to safety. We, along with our neighbors, were trapped.
After about an hour of harrowing confusion, firefighters managed to clear a path for the 100 families of Beit Meir to flee the inferno. I watched as dozens of righteous firefighters and police faded into the smokey distance of my rear view mirror.
We fled to Beit Shemesh, and were warmly taken in at 330am by Rabbi Gerzi and his unceasingly kind family.
For what's it's worth, I got out my phone to document the deluge. Perhaps it will give you a glimpse (as it did for me the first time) of the first hand horrors wrought by terrorists seeking to harm innocent civilians.
It's 438am now, my kids are back asleep, and my village is no doubt still in flames. My parents are on a plane, somewhere over the Atlantic, oblivious to the chaos that awaits their arrival in Israel. Houses are still ablaze and the forest is a sea of fire. I don't know if I will have a house to return to. I just hope everyone managed to escape safely.
Pray for us.
Posted by Yaakov Lehman on Thursday, November 24, 2016
Meanwhile, the self-proclaimed 'most pro-Israel administration evah' has been silent.
Now a report is finally emerging that a U.S. asset is deploying to
Israel to help fight the fires. But it’s not assistance being provided
by the U.S. government. The Israeli government has arranged with the company Global SuperTanker to send its unique Boeing 747 supertanker firefighting aircraft to Israel for support. The plane will arrive on Friday.
Public communications about the supertanker’s deployment have been
somewhat stilted – in contrast to the simple, heartfelt thanks expressed
by the Israeli government to the foreign governments that have stepped
up to provide assistance.
Benjamin Netanyahu put it this way, regarding the deployment from Global SuperTanker:
“It needs to be understood that the firefighting planes
currently being used are not able to operate overnight. There is only
one plane that has this ability, and that is the Supertanker. I
instructed that it be brought here. It will take 24 hours to come from
the US. We only use it in extreme situations. We don’t use it for
everything but I prefer that we have too much rather than too little,” said Netanyahu.
Basically, this careful wording means Israel hired the plane. The
U.S. government isn’t providing it. (Netanyahu would never say of aid
provided by another government that “he has instructed that it be
brought” to Israel. He would publicly thank the other government, as he
has done with all the foreign governments providing actual assistance.)
And not all Israelis are impressed:
However, the arrival of the supertanker has come in for
criticism from some quarters. “This is a matter of politics and less of
an operational need. We weren’t given the opportunity to express
ourselves on the matter,” a senior member of the rescue services was quoted as saying.
To the extent it’s political, I read this as Netanyahu covering (once
again) for the bad attitude of the Obama administration: arranging for
an American asset to be involved in this Israeli emergency, because the
longstanding ties of Israel and the United States are more important
than the petulance and bad faith of an outgoing administration.
There is considerably more the administration could be doing.
By the way, nothing has changed since that post. I just googled "Obama Israel fires" and that is the most recent post.
And the Democrats are promoting the meme that Trump is an anti-Semite and a Nazi. The real anti-Semite is the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
At the beginning of the Oslo war (on Rosh HaShanna), a 'Palestinian' mob attacked Joseph's
tomb and destroyed it. An IDF soldier, Mahdat Yusuf, bled to death in
that attack. Ehud Barak was
the Prime Minister (and Defense Minister) then and refused to let the IDF go in to rescue the soldiers who were trapped there. Former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz was the Judea and Samaria commander at the time. The tomb was closed for nearly ten years after that incident, and was officially reopened in 2010.
Around 5:00 am on Friday, 'Palestinian' terrorists torched the tomb - now under 'Palestinian' control with access supposedly guaranteed to Jews - once again.
According to available details about the Joseph's Tomb
incident, at around 5 a.m. Friday some 100 Palestinians rioted outside
the compound and at some point began hurling firebombs onto the
premises, setting the main access to the tomb, its courtyard and part of
the building on fire.
Defense officials told Channel 2 News that Palestinian
security forces were able to extinguish the flames and disperse the riot
by the time Israeli forces had arrived.
A second, smaller riot, erupted when Israeli
security forces arrived at the holy site.
Rioters pelted the troops with
rocks and threw firebombs at their vehicles. The soldiers use crowd
control measures to disperse the riot.
Security forces have remained on the premises to prevent Palestinian rioters from vandalizing the site further.
Joseph's Tomb is under the Palestinian
security forces' control. Jewish prayer in the compound is allowed, but
worshippers are required to coordinate their visits with the military,
which escorts them in and out of the area.
Jewish access to the compound is often restricted for security reasons.
Following the incident, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner
of the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, tweeted, "IDF will bring perpetrators to
justice, restore the site & ensure that freedom of worship returns
to Joseph's Tomb."
Even UPI's headline said that the tomb had been set on fire by 'Palestinians.' But not CNN's. Their headline reads:Joseph's Tomb site catches fire in spate of Palestinian-Israeli violence. That's right, it just 'caught fire' (was it reaching up to catch it?) spontaneously. And it was in a spate of 'Palestinian'-Israeli violence - note that in the Yisrael HaYom account quoted above, there were no Israelis at the tomb when the 'Palestinians' set it on fire - the IDF arrived later.
Here's CNN's report, which is only slightly better.
Let's go to the videotape.
And the written report is not much better.
Fire broke out at the compound housing Joseph's Tomb overnight, a
religious site venerated by Jews, the Israel Defense Forces said.
Palestinian forces dispersed alleged Palestinian arsonists and put out
the fire.
Unless you get to the second sentence, you might think there was a gas leak or an electrical failure. The initial report is 'fire broke out.' I have to wonder whether the words 'dispersed illegal Palestinian arsonists' were added later because other people saw the report.
CNN lies.
UPDATE 3:49 PM
I meant to add this, which I received by email:
Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council: "As a Jew I must
voice my deep shock over this terrible act. I believe that there's
nobody from the free world who would not see this act as barbaric
and criminal. To set on fire one of the holiest sites of the Jewish
people - A historical asset to the whole world!
"This is the barbarity of the Palestinian Authority and the person
heading it. Another act that proves that we cannot rely on this
'partner'. I call on the Prime Minister to immediately bring back
IDF forces to Joseph's Tomb, because it's clear that if he doesn't,
there will be nobody to guard this inalienable asset for us. Again,
the responsibility belongs to Abu Mazen, the Holocaust denier, and
he has to answer for it.
"Leaders of the enlightened world: Where are your condemnations???
John Kerry, Ban Ki Moon, Mogrini - such a gang of hypocrites! What
would you have done if an important Islamic mosque were burned down?
You should be ashamed of yourselves!!!
"In the face of such Arab barbarity in Shechem and the political
hypocrisy overseas, I call on the Prime Minister to order IDF forces
to return Israeli control to Joseph's Tomb (something that is called
for even in the accursed Oslo accords).
The cat cannot guard the cream! He'll burn it!
Only the IDF can protect this holy site. We must put an end to this
disgrace. This is the only real and correct response - THIS VERY
MORNING is the time!
For those who don't get the connection, Sa'ad Dawabsha was the father of the 18-month old who was burned to death in last week's terror attack in Duma. (KhaledAbuToameh confirmed that to me in a return tweet).
Although there have been claims that the Dawabsha family home was burnt down by 'Jewish terrorists,' to date, no Jew has been arrested in connection with the attack, and there are rumors that the family was involved in a feud between clans for the last 18 years.
And now this. You don't think that the Dawabsha family home was burned down by Fatah supporters because the Dawabsha's were Hamas supporters, do you?
The father of the Arab child who died in a firebomb attack on his home in Duma died himself this morning. Israel has made a lot of noise about arresting 'Jewish terrorists' and yet to date, no one has been charged with the attack in Duma, and rumors continue to swirl about the victimized family being involved in a long-standing feud within the local community.
This is from the second link.
The ZOA issued a statement that says in effect, don't be so fast to blame the Jews. They note several very strong points:
1. The victims' family have been involved in a blood-feud with an opposing clan for the last 18 years;
2. The two homes set on fire were in the center of a hostile Arab
village – an unlikely choice for Israelis entering from outside the
village. It would have been extremely difficult for Israeli Jews to
reach and then to depart from the center of a hostile Arab village
without being detected.
3. Similar graffiti has never been found in radical Jewish "price-tag" attacks.
And, in adding my own doubts, what hit-man has the time to stand
around and compose graffiti on the walls, complete with drawing crowns
and Stars of David? In fact, the Star of David in the above photo looks
very much like the type you'd see in Arab anti-Semitic cartoons.
Israel's secret services are very capable. A professional
graphologist can discern quite a bit from the above two writings on the
walls. Even a novice like me can tell you that the crooked kuf in nekama [above] is indicative of a person with extremely violent
tendencies, one who has probably harmed people before. Without a doubt, a
professional could shed much light on the perpetrator's profile; that
is, if the Israeli Government really wants the truth.
The first two points were both discussed at great length here.
'Settler' goes along on Leftist condolence visit to Arab village
A revenant in his 20's named Yonadav Tapuchi went along on a Leftist-sponsored visit to the site of the two arson attacks in the village of Duma last week. (You can see a post about a similar visit here). Tapuchi said that he went along on the trip to show that not everyone on the Right agrees with last week's actions (which are still presumed to have been carried out by a Jew from the Right), and that although he is a supporter of Jewish settlement of the entire land in Israel, some actions are simply beyond the pale.
For those of you who read Hebrew, you can find his original thoughts here (it's accessible). For those who do not, Hillel Fendel has translated most of them into English.
"I had difficult feelings after my trip," Yonadav wrote, "which can
be divided into three groups. First, there is no doubt that this was
a shocking crime. It is simply terrible to wake up in the middle of the
night to find your house and family going up in flames, to escape by the
skin of your teeth, and then to find that you have lost a son.
...My condolences to the family; may they know no more pain."
"The second area concerns the anthropological experience I had on the
bus filled with veteran left-wing activists from Tel Aviv – a
horrific scene of hatred-filled talk: hatred of settlers, hatred of the
religious, and especially of haredim; hatred of the State of
Israel; and explanations why it was a moral imperative to leave and move
to another country.
"When we arrived at the village, we were surrounded by Arab
photographers. We were informed that the original plan had been
changed, and that before visiting the actual mourning family, we would
first see the burnt houses. Thus, a bunch of Jews with their heads held
low were photographed near and in the burnt houses and the Hebrew
graffiti there. A representative of the family and the village then gave
a short speech ('the settlers should expect the worst!,' he warned). We
were then told that actually, the village is quite up in arms, and that
it would not be convenient for us to actually comfort the mourning
family, and that we had better leave fast.
"I and others felt that this whole thing was a media trick to get the
'Yahud' [Arabic for 'the Jews' – ed.] to take part in humiliating set
of photos near the buildings, and that they had never planned to allow
us to come in actual contact with the family."
The third set of impressions that Yonadav Tapuchi came away with
concerned the suspicious nature of the alleged arson. He did not
mention that there have been reports of an ongoing, 18-year feud between
two clans in Duma that might be related to the murderous arson. In
addition, one of the two graffiti messages – the single word nekamah,
meaning "revenge" – has calligraphic elements that raise the suspicion
that it was actually sprayed by an Arab.
There was actually a report up in Hebrew on rotter.net yesterday that claimed that suspects had been arrested in connection with the arson, and that they were Arabs. But when I clicked on the link from Twitter, the post had been removed. It is not unheard of in this country for a report like that to be censored by the military censor for some period of time. In other words, the report could still be true.
And that's not the only thing that's suspicious.
"According to the Duma version, the attackers burnt one house, then
saw that it was empty, and so they went to set fire to the next
house. The second house is enclosed by a fence, and the windows are
covered by a dense lattice; a firebomb cannot be hurled through the
windows, and in any event it is very hard to reach the windows behind
the fence. The arsonists had to go around the house, enter the yard, and
place the firebombs through the lattice. According to the Duma version,
the attackers entered the house, stood over the parents and did not let
them leave until the flames engulfed the house. Only then did the
arsonists run away from the village.
"I can only say that when the arsonists are ultimately caught, we
will get to hear a fascinating story of why they chose to navigate their
way all the way into the middle of the village, and how they had time
to set a house on fire, wait to find that it was empty, then walk
around and enter another house and set it on fire, wait with the
parents, spray graffiti in two places – including with a little design
of a crown! – and then run away through the middle of the village with
all the townspeople surely already up and on their feet seeing
the flames and hearing the family's cries. Something here is very
fishy…"
The forest fire in the Jerusalem forest on Sunday was likely arson - or so it would appear from this report.
Arson may be the cause of the largest forest fire in Jerusalem in the past year, fire fighters said on Sunday afternoon as a fire raged in the Jerusalem forest below the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. Firefighters are expected to have control of the fire by 8:00 pm, said Jerusalem Fire and Rescue Services spokesman Asaf Abras. The fire had already burned dozens of dunams.
Five firefighters and three other people at Yad Vashem were treated for smoke inhalation by Magen David Adom and four were evacuated to area hospitals. There were no other injuries and no residents were evacuated from their homes. Residents of Beit HaKerem and Har Nof were asked to stay inside their homes with the windows closed or avoid the area altogether.
The fire broke out simultaneously in four different spots in the Jerusalem forest at approximately 3:30 p.m. Abras said firefighters would investigate the cause of the conflagration over the coming days, adding that the fact that the fire started from four different areas at once “raised a lot of questions”
One fire reached the western edge of the Yad Vashem campus, which is hundreds of meters from the museum building but close to the educational center. The musuem was able to use their own fire extinguishing equipment before the fire entered the campus.
“We’ve improved our procedures, and after the Carmel fire we purchased a lot of equipment,” said Avner Shalev, outside of the museum, where fire, police, emergency services, and the army had set up a command center. Three Yad Vashem workers were treated for smoke inhalation, and hundreds of visitors were evacuated from the campus.
“We stopped the fire, it’s a fact,” said Shalev. He said that after today the museum would add an additional pipeline of water defense. He added that the Yad Vashem employees were ready to start emergency evacuation of the most important artifacts from the museum but they quickly realized it would not be necessary.
Fire and Rescue Services had flagged the forest outside of Yad Vashem as a major “area of concern” for forest fires, and had planned to run a large drill starting next week, coordinated with police and emergency services, simulating a large forest fire approaching Yad Vashem. “We’re all kind of laughing to ourselves, because there’s no drill, we got it in real time,” said Abras.
He added that after the Carmel fire in December, the coordination between firefighters, police, and army had improved. The most important lesson learned from the Carmel fire was to send in five or six crews initially, rather than waiting for the first crew to report back, something that was instrumental in containing the fire on Sunday.
An Israeli fire truck was attacked on Sunday when it responded to a call in the Arab neighborhood of Shuafat (it's not clear to me from the story if they mean the 'refugee camp' or the wealthy village across the road, but it's far more likely that it's the 'refugee camp').
A Jerusalem firefighting crew that was sent to put out a car fire in the northern neighborhood of Shuafat was attacked by rock throwers while performing its duty Sunday evening.
The fire engine was damaged and the firefighters were forced to retreat without gaining control over the fire.
The next time, just let them burn down their whole neighborhood and don't pay to rebuild it.
Nevertheless, it was clear to me - and to all others afraid to talk about this openly - that the huge blaze in the Carmel Mountains would kindle all sorts of other fires far away from the range of its sparks. It makes no difference if it started in a garbage dump or by arson. It makes no difference because we all know that most of the fires in Israel are caused by arson - arson perpetrated by Arabs, not by crazies or criminals; arson motivated by nationalism. Yes, arson by Arab citizens of Israel.
Everyone is busy figuring out how many tons of fire extinguishers we must keep in storage, but they are afraid to touch upon the real reason for the fires. So the question begs: Who is setting these fires, and why?
Arson in Israel is generally perpetrated by Israeli Arabs. Not all of them, of course. But somehow, those guilty of arson are generally from the Arab sector.
Why would they do it? After all, life is good for Arabs in Israel. There is no Arab state where an Arab can enjoy absolute freedom and economic wellbeing like in Israel. Why do they hate us so much? Why do they burn the land that is showering them with so much good?
I do not think that they do it because they are bad people. I have gotten to know quite a few Arabs with hearts of gold. They also do not do it because of some dark primitivism. And they are not stupid.
But they have a problem with the Islamic religion and culture.
When a doctor from Kfar Saba's Meir Hospital murders his sister for "family honor," he is motivated by a very problematic cultural background.
"The Arab is not the son of the desert, but its progenitor," said the first British commissioner of the Sinai, Sir Charles Darvis. Wherever the Arab goes, he brings the desert with him. Now he has brought the desert to the evergreen Carmel Mountains.
Take Israel-hater Arab MK Azmi Bishara, for example. If his dream comes true and Israel is defeated, he will lose his fat salary and the other benefits that he has. Why is he cutting off the branch upon which he sits?
The answer is that questions like that are irrelevant in a culture of robbers. In Arab countries, there is no middle class. In the Middle East, either you are one of the lucky few partaking in the feast, or you belong to the masses that are part of the menu. For this reason there is not, and there never will be, democracy in the Arab states, and their economies will never flourish. Israel produces more than all of its neighbors combined. That is not because we are extremely industrious. It is because true economic vitality cannot exist in a culture of robbery.
"The Jews' goal is to establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel," explained former British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Ernest Bevin to the UN, "while the goal of the Arabs is that there should not be a Jewish state in the Land of Israel." Bevin cannot be counted as a friend of Israel. But he, like Darvis 30 years before him, understood that there is no struggle taking place in Israel between nations and cultures that desire to settle and develop the land. Rather there is only one side that wants to do so - while the other side has no positive intentions. Its only goal is the elimination of the first side's goals.
Video: Ambassadors from more than 20 countries plant trees in Carmel forest
The ambassadors to Israel from more than 20 countries that helped fight the Carmel forest fire came together near the Carmel Forest Hotel to plant trees and revitalize the forest on Monday.
The diplomats included ambassadors from the US, Russia, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Japan, Jordan, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania and the Ukraine, as well as a representative of the Palestinian Authority.
The seedling-planting ceremony was held near the Ye'arot HaCarmel hotel, a location that the JNF's firefighting force played an important role in saving from the fire.
...
The Director of the Greek Foreign Ministry, Konstantin Papadopoulos, spoke on behalf of the ambassadors. "We will always stand beside you," he said. "One never knows when we might need help. This is an act of human solidarity, and in Greece we remember how Israel did not hesitate to aid us three years ago in putting out the huge fire that raged in our country."
Let's hope that a fire like this does not happen again.
You will recall that Jeffrey Goldberg wrote a post last week in which he urged us all not to support the JNF because it is paying for items that ought to be paid for out of the budget of the Israeli government. After all, argues Goldberg, Israel is a 'rich country.'
I took Goldberg to task as did many other bloggers. Over the last week, the controversy has not died down, with many bloggers weighing in either for or against Goldberg, and some of them attacking him personally. Goldberg has posted on the issue at least two more times, and I had those posts open on my screen for a while, but never got around to writing about them.
Jonathan Tobin does a great job in Commentary/Contentions in summing up why Goldberg is wrong.
But as much as foreign supporters of the Jewish state ought to share the frustration of Israelis about all this, Goldberg is still wrong about boycotting the JNF. The fund cannot guarantee that the trees Americans pay for won’t burn in a future fire, but that doesn’t mean that Israel’s forests shouldn’t be replanted. To punish the JNF because of governmental failures would be no different from a call to stop funding charities that served the people of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina because of the colossal failures of local government to protect their citizens as well as for the mistakes the Army Corps of Engineers made in estimating the damage that a storm might do to the city’s levees. Giving to the JNF is not, as Goldberg says, co-opting Diaspora Jews into supporting a cover-up of governmental failures. To the contrary, such donations will help fund the cleanup and recovery.
Goldberg is right when he says Israel should fully fund its fire-fighting capability, but the country’s mistakes on this issue will be rectified for the same reason that New Orleans’s flood prevention has been improved: it took a disaster and a bitter public backlash to force the government to prioritize this issue. This is the way with all democracies. Just as the defeats suffered during the Yom Kippur War and the Second Lebanon War prompted army reform in Israel, you can bet that Israel’s fire service will never be shorted again, or at least not anytime soon. This proves that for all its specific problems, Israeli democracy is not much different from the kind we practice here, where our leaders are just as guilty of fighting the last war rather than planning for the next one as they are in Jerusalem.
Jeffrey needs to calm down a little bit. Yes, the government should have dealt with this a long time ago - it's an issue that was raised in the aftermath of several fires started by Hezbullah missiles in the Second Lebanon War. But it's not the JNF's fault that the two governments since the War have not take the issue seriously enough. And given how little real influence Israelis have over their government, it's not really Israelis' fault either.
I received the following email from one of my LinkedIn groups in 'real life.'
The Yemin Orde Boarding School – supported by Ivy Israel - Israel - was destroyed in the Carmel Forest Fire over the weekend. 500 Children – most without parents or a home in Israel where evacuated on Thursday night; by late Friday there was still poetic hope that two Greek fire-fighting planes dedicated to save the Youth Village during Hanukah had succeeded in beating back the fire but on Shabbat the Village burned down. The School on a height near where the Prophet Elijah dwelt (the Prophet who cares for Children) looked as if the earth vomited black on a once verdant campus.
Several Ivy Israel members met the school's headmaster Dr. Chaim Peri when he spoke in the States last month. Dr. Peri has met with Ivy Israel members in Israel several times over the past year; including during a day of service at the School organizaed by Yale over the summer.
The children, staff and the many graduates who rushed in from all over the country to help are safe. For now, the Village is uninhabitable and we moved 100 children to Yemin Orde Initiatives' sister school Neveh Amiel while the army searches for an installation where the entire Village (500 students and 130 staff) can stay together until the campus is rehabilitated.
As always, the priority remains to care for the children who themselves come from brokenness (many from Ethiopia; Russia, Brazil and children at risk from Israel). Deep inside, we instill in them a trust that after ill fortune strikes, new opportunities open. When there's life, there's hope! The community we built far outlasts any edifice. 1000s of graduates have come to help the high schoolers in need who are given a value-laden education to look-outside of themselves and embrace children from Darfur in need (who are Muslim refugees in Israel and learn at the Jewish Religious school). The graduates also teach at a boarding school in Rwanda for the Tutsi orphans built by Penn Alumnae Anne Heyman. The Nobel Laureate Elie Weisel, The Dali Lama and scores of social thought leaders are actively involved with the school. The US UN Ambassador recently spent a day at Yemin Orde to see how immigrant children are embraced and accelerated into being the most productive members of society.
Personal Note: I am on the Board of Directors of Yemin Orde Educational Initiatives – the organization that teaches teachers throughout Israel the Yemin Orde pedagogic approach and for 25 years I have had the privilege of working with the School's Director Dr. Chaim Peri (two time Israel Prize Nominee) including during a period when I was involved in bringing 1000s of Jewish children from Ethiopia who studied at the school.
My hope is to strengthen the ties to the school during this season when it is very much in the media and in need. To also enlist you to participate in future activities we conduct with the school.
Please see background on various sites.
Background and US site: http://www.yeminorde.org/index.aspx
Updates and eyewitness accounts of the fire: http://www.yeminorde.org/pages/villagefire.aspx
Donations (Tax Deductible) with Credit Card (Hebrew) http://www.yeminorde.co.il/1833
Dov Hoch - President – Penn Club of Israel Board Member - Yemin Orde Educational Initiatives
Khaled Abu Toameh explains why there is no peace in the Middle East. The answer is really quite simple: Most Muslims still dream of Israel's destruction.
It is sad and abhorrent to see how many Arabs have rejoiced over the big forest fire in Northern Israel, calling it a "divine punishment" for Israelis and wishing that the blaze would spread to destroy all Jews.
The messages of hate are the result of decades of incitement against Israel and Jews in the Arab media and mosques throughout the Arab and Islamic world.
The comments serve as a reminder that many people in the Arab and Islamic countries still have not come to terms with Israel's right to exist in this part of the world. Even worse, many of the talkbacks show that many Arabs and Muslims would welcome another Holocaust.
These reactions were posted on Web sites of major Arab media outlets, such as the popular Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya TV networks, and the Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.
What is troubling is that these repugnant comments appeared on Web sites that are not necessarily associated with radical Islam.
Al-Arabiya and Asharq Al-Awsat are owned by members of the Saudi royal family, which, ironically, has been frequently targeted by Muslim fundamentalist groups like Al-Qaeda.
The overwhelming majority of talkbacks that appeared on the Web sites of these three powerful media organizations in the past few days showed how many Arabs and Muslim continue to dream about the destruction of Israel.
True, some readers and viewers did not join in the "celebration" of the fire that killed more than 40 people and destroyed hundreds of thousands of trees. Some even expressed sympathy with Israel, and some even criticized Arabs and Muslims who rejoiced over the fire.
But these "positive" comments reflected the opinion of a tiny minority. For example, out of 123 comments posted on one of the Web sites, less than 15 seemed to be rational.
The hateful postings did not only come from Arab and Islamic countries and the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories, but also from Arabs living in North America, Australia, Sweden and Europe.
I hope there's something here we're not being told, and that our government is at least supplying temporary shelter.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with director-generals of government ministries to discuss assistance for those affected by the Carmel range wildfires. Netanyahu instructed the Finance Minister director-general to allocate an immediate grant of NIS 2,500 ($690) to each citizen who lost his or her home, in order to help them buy essentials and school equipment.
Where are these people staying? Are they giving this allowance per kid or per family? Anyone know?
For those wondering why people aren't insured.... Most Israelis only carry insurance on the structure in which they live - and then only because the banks won't give a mortgage without it. Contents insurance is something only the Americans bother to buy, although more Israelis are buying it now than did 20 years ago when we arrived here. It's quite expensive because it takes some doing to get them not to insure everything you list at replacement cost.
You can file claims for lost property with the tax authority and you will get some money back. But it's nowhere near covering your loss. You can only come close to covering what you lost with private insurance.
Yes, this is one of the vestiges of being a socialist paradise.
14-year old 'Israeli Arab' admits starting Carmel forest fire outside Haifa
A 14-year old 'Israeli Arab' from the village of Usfiya has been arrested after confessing to starting the Carmel forest fire outside of Haifa.
A 14-year-old resident of Usfiya was arrested on Monday on suspicion of hurling a charcoal from a water-pipe into a forest clearing near Usfiya on Thursday morning, witnessing the ignition of a large fire, and fleeing the scene. Police suspect the boy's actions directly led to the Carmel forest inferno.
The youth confessed to the suspicions against him and reenacted his alleged actions on Monday, police added.
After witnessing the flames grow out of control, the youth became panicked, "ran back to his school [in Usfiya], and did not report the fire to anyone," police said.
The youth will appear before the Haifa Magistrate's Court on Tuesday morning for a remand hearing.
Hof police spokesman Mor Inbar told The Jerusalem Post that four additional Usfiya youths were questioned in recent days in connection with the water-pipe incident.
They included two brothers aged 16 and 14 who were arrested on Sunday, and who were released by the Haifa District Court on Monday after Judge Avraham Elikim accepted an appeal by attorneys representing the brothers against a decision by the Haifa Magistrate's Court to keep them in custody until Wednesday.
Judge Elikim noted that police suspect the minors of causing death through criminal negligence, but added that the suspects' young age represented an alleviating factor in the suspicions against them. "There is no disputing the trauma caused by the fires to many people, but we should not place a national disaster on the shoulders of two minors," Judge Elikim said during his decision on Monday.
Two additional minors were detained for questioning - though not arrested - by officers from the Hof police sub-district's central unit on Monday and released, before the 14-year-old suspect was arrested.
Meanwhile, Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said a total of four suspects around the country have been arrested in recent days on suspicion of deliberately setting off smaller fires. Two suspects were arrested in the Jerusalem area and two more were arrested in Acre on suspicion of arson attacks.
Israeli and Turkish reps meet in Geneva but Erdogan still hates Israel
Representatives of Israel and Turkey met in Geneva over the weekend in a bid to reduce tensions after the Turks provided equipment to fight the fire in Haifa, but Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is still insisting on total Israeli submission regarding the Mavi Marmara before he will consider restoring any kind of relations between the two countries.
Officials from Israel and Turkey met in Geneva on Sunday to help reduce tensions, according to a CNN report, as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan demanded an apology for the IDF raid on the Mavi Marmara. Erdogan also stated on Sunday that Israel must pay damages to those wounded and the families of those killed during the operation.
Yosef Ciechanover, the Israeli representative on the UN flotilla probe, was reportedly asked by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to travel to Geneva to attend the meeting.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry sent Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu to meet with Ciechanover, CNN reported.
"The two met in order to find ways to promote appeasement and diminish the tension between the two countries," an Israeli official told CNN.
"We regretted the deterioration of the relationship between the two countries and we of course like to see an improvement of the relations," he added.
On Sunday, Erdogan stated that despite Turkey's recent provision of firefighting assistance to Israel's efforts to the control the blazes that broke out in the Carmel region, a new page in Turco-Israeli relations would be possible without addressing the outstanding Turkish requests made in the aftermath of the failed May 31 attempt to break the Gaza blockade."If a hand is outstretched towards us, we will not leave it hanging in the air," Erdogan was quoted by Israel Radio as saying in a speech delivered in central Turkey. He continued, " but we want to see an indication that it is a sincere gesture."
Also on Sunday, Army Radio reported on a Turkish CNN interview with Erdogan, where the leader explained Ankara's decision to send aid to Israel.
"We will not stand aside at a time when people are being killed and nature destroyed," Erdogan was quoted as saying. "A day will come when we will turn the page [on diplomatic relations], but first Israel must apologize for the incidents of the Gaza flotilla and compensate [the families] of those killed."
As if they were all complete innocents and what they did wasn't an act of war. /sigh
Don't donate money to fight Israel's forest fires?
Jeffrey Goldberg has been spending too much time listening to the lunatic ravings of his co-blogger Andrew Sullivan. He's urging you not to donate money to help rebuild from the ravages of the forest fire in Israel (Hat Tip: Shy Guy via Hot Air).
Inevitably, the Jewish National Fund, which, among other things, plants forests in Israel, is asking for donations from Americans for its "Forest Fire Emergency Campaign," in response to the massive fire spreading across the Carmel mountains. But I'm not giving.
Israel's per capita GDP is nearly $30,000. Israel is a rich country. The fact that it doesn't possess adequate firefighting equipment is its own fault. The fact that the leadership of its fire service is incompetent is its own fault (you canread more about that here). At some point, the good-hearted Diaspora Jews who still think of Israel as a charity case are going to have to tell their cousins to learn to fully-fund basic services like firefighting if they want to be thought of as citizens of an advanced country.
There are a great many good causes in Israel that deserve help, and a great many causes here in America that deserve our help. It seems to me, however, that Israel's national fire service should be funded by Israel's government, not by the people of Boca Raton, Potomac and the Upper West Side.
By Goldberg's logic, I suppose Israel should not have sent any equipment to help out with Hurricane Katrina. For that matter, neither should anyone else outside New Orleans have helped. After all, it was well-known that the levees around New Orleans were at a risk of flooding. New Orleans is a rich city, and America is a rich country. The City of New Orleans should have dealt with the problem, and if it didn't, its residents should have paid the ultimate price.
The same goes for the specialized equipment Israel sent to help after the earthquake in Turkey. They should be prepared for earthquakes - they're relatively frequent occurrences there. The same for tsunamis in Indonesia and Thailand earthquakes in Haiti (okay, they really are poor) and embassy bombings around the world.
In fact, why don't we just become isolationists altogether? You know - ignore everyone outside our own neighborhood/city/country. Ridiculous....
If this had been any country other than Israel, would Goldberg (or anyone else) even have suggested it?
Video: Supertanker in action putting out Haifa fire
This is what you've all been waiting for. This is the American Evergreen supertanker carrying 80,000 liters of water and fire retardant chemicals flying over the Carmel forest fire and dumping its load.
The massive Carmel forest fire just north of Haifa was declared under control at about 4:30 on Sunday afternoon.
"Our news for this evening is control," fire official Boaz Rakia told reporters at nightfall Sunday. "The fire department has declared that the fire is under control." He added that the small fires are still burning in some places.
He said that most of the thousands of Israelis evacuated from their homes would be allowed to return.
"From our point of view, the danger has passed for all the places that were evacuated," Rakia said. The sole exception, he said, was Kibbutz Beit Oren, located in the heart of the fire zone, where extensive fire damage would prevent residents from immediately returning.
Magen David Adom officials also announced that 33 individuals suffering from fire-related injuries were evacuated to area hospitals during the three-day blaze. Three of the wounded suffered from serious injuries, three were moderately hurt and the rest were lightly wounded.
Earlier on Sunday afternoon the Police announced that all major fires in the North were contained as of 4:30 p.m. The announcement came 77 hours after firefighters began their efforts to contain the effort.
"There are no large fire sites at this time, just small ones that are being tackled [by firefighters]," the Police spokesperson's office said in a statement released Sunday afternoon.
At sundown on Sunday, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told The Associated Press that there have been 20 arson attempts in other forests over the past 48 hours, and four people have been arrested.
All the foreign firefighting planes are expected to stay in Israel until tomorrow to ensure that the blaze has been put out, Israel Radio reported Sunday evening.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
