A 50-year old Jewish man from Beit Zayit has been arrested and charged with negligently setting Sunday's forest fire that burned through 150 dunams of the Jerusalem Forest.
A 50-year-old Jewish man from the Beit Zayit suburb of Jerusalem was arrested by police on Monday afternoon on suspicion of being responsible for the forest fire in Jerusalem on Sunday. Police believe the fire started in the man’s courtyard, where he had piled trash next to his house, and then was carried by the wind, jumping from place to place before raging out of control.
Police and fire investigators initially believed that the fire was the result of arson, as it started simultaneously in four different areas. “It seems that the fire jumped from place to place, which is why they thought it was arson,” said Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben Ruby.
They could use this guy here. Let's go to the videotape.
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.
There's a massive forest fire in the Jerusalem Forest in the area of Yad Vashem. Thus far, there is no threat to the Pi Glilot oil tanks, which are in the forest underneath the Har Nof neighborhood. Currently, the fire is out of control, due to winds whipping it around. Yad Vashem has been evacuated. The fire is spreading toward Beit Zayit which is located below Har Nof. There is smoke in Bayit Vegan (one side of Yad Vashem) and in Har Nof (which is above Beit Zayit on the other side).
Three firefighting planes are attempting to gain control over the fire.
I tried to upload a map for you, but it's encrypted so I couldn't.
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.
Leftist Gideon Levy argues that the Carmel forest fire shows why Israel has no military option against Iran.
Every cloud has a silver lining: Maybe lessons will be learned from the fire. Not only fire extinguishers, fire trucks and new planes, but also new thinking, and fire retardants that douse the really big fire.
The home front's weakness should teach us that Israel apparently has no military option. This is a much more fateful lesson than all the fire's other lessons, and it should be dealt with. The apocalyptic descriptions of a missile attack on the home front if Israel attacks Iran or Lebanon appear even more apocalyptic in light of Israel's conduct when handling a medium-sized forest fire. Discussions on our future, therefore, should move to the arena that Israelis favor: the security arena.
Leave aside human rights and the occupation, don't worry about morality and justice, forget about peace as a leftist delusion and ignore the Palestinian problem. The issue is Israel's security interests, perhaps even existential interests.
The next wars will be home-front wars. This time the Israeli home front will be hit in a way we have never experienced. The first Gulf war and the Second Lebanon War were only the movie trailer for what could happen. An attack of thousands of missiles, as predicted by experts, will create a reality Israel will find hard to withstand. It isn't equipped for it, as we saw on the Carmel, and it isn't prepared for it, as we saw in the Lebanon war.
Any Israeli leader, even an adventurist and a former commando, should understand that the attack option is not really an option. It's true that we succeeded in a few bombings in the past, but nothing lasts forever and the Scuds against us won't always be hollow. A thousand new fire trucks and even the Iron Dome missile defense system will not provide protection. You can't build a fortress for every citizen. This leads to the second, unavoidable conclusion, which should penetrate very deeply, not only among diplomats and commanders, but also among the many warmongers among us: the only existential option is integrating into the region (a term coined decades ago by Uri Avnery ).
Levy is one of Israel's most extreme Leftist writers, and his article is obviously written with a note of glee. But he raises points that do need to be answered. First, the IDF has changed drastically since the debacle of the Second Lebanon War. It is no longer run by pacifists like Dan Halutz (who was the chief of staff) and Amir "Comrade" Peretz (who was Defense Minister). Even under the Olmert government, the IDF had changed, as was shown by the alleged destruction of the al-Kibar reactor in Syria, and more explicitly by Operation Cast Lead.
Second, there is no option of 'integrating into the region.' Levy and Uri Avnery and Israel's other flaming Leftists willfully ignore the fact that Israel does not have and has never had an option of 'integrating into the region.' The Arab states - and particularly the 'Palestinians' - wish to extirpate our existence. No more and no less.
Third, yes the fire ought to raise fears in all Israelis that we are not equipped to cope with the fallout from Hezbullah and Hamas missiles. Hopefully, the Home Front will now deal with that situation. And given the havoc apparently wreaked by Stuxnet, we will apparently have more time than we expected to try to improve on that situation.
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.
Having lived in this region for 19 years, this makes complete sense to me.
Among the leaked documents is one in which the US Embassy writes about rumors that Erdoğan has multiple Swiss bank accounts in which he has more the $1 billion. As the Turks see it, Erdoğan must have been stunned by this revelation. Many believe that the US released this document in order to embarrass and humiliate him.
America had shown its power. Erdoğan therefore had no choice other than it submit to its dictates. How best to do that? A large number of Middle Easterners believe the Jews run America and the world. By this logic, now that America has thrown down the gauntlet, the best way for Erdoğan to redeem himself is to find a way to ingratiate hmself to the Americans and Israelis. This, accordingly, would help him come down off of a branch onto which he dangerously had stepped.
The opportunity presented itself very quickly. When Israel proved unable to handle the huge fire that was blazing in its Carmel Mountains, Erdoğan jumped at the opportunity to send two Turkish planes to help the Israelis put out the fire. This humanitarian gesture would surely signal to the Americans and world Jewry that he was not as bad as they thought he was. This gesture, they reasoned, would help Erdoğan back into the good graces of the Americans and the Jews, who together, "behind the curtain," run the world.
Moreover, given past history, it is very likely that Erdoğan and his cohorts also have a lurking fear that America and the Jews might have other tricks up their sleeves, and most certainly fear this Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu handled this situation adeptly: by personally calling Erdoğan and thanking him for sending the planes, he got credit for decency in the eyes of the world, and the Turkish nation in particular. Netanyahu also personally went and shook the hands of the Turkish pilots who came to Israel's rescue. Pictures of the Israeli Prime Minister were printed in newspapers and shown on Turkish television stations throughout Turkey. These pictures and the personal call to their Prime Minister touch deep cords in Turkey: showing warmth, hospitality, and gratitude are major characteristics in Turkish society. Netanyahu's actions demonstrated to the Turks that he is an extremely decent man, not the "killer" that Erdoğan and his colleagues have claimed the past few years.
Where does this leads us? Since the WikiLeaks and the fire in northern Israel, there has been a flurry of diplomatic activity behind the scenes between the Israelis and the Turks – seeking ways to patch up their differences. We should consequently not be surprised if Turkish-Israeli relations markedly improve in the coming months. By "intentionally" leaking documents about Erdoğan and those around him, the US has, from a Middle Eastern point of view, warned him that he had better find a way to step in line; that if he does not, the other shoe might drop.
Yes, of course, Erdogan is being paranoid. But sometimes a little paranoia is a good thing.
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.
Two more 'Israeli Arabs' arrested and charged with arson
Two more 'Israeli Arabs' have been arrested and charged with arson in responses to what was apparently a coordinated effort to set additional fires while fire fighters were responding to the massive Carmel forest fire outside of Haifa last week.
Two Israeli-Arab teenagers were arrested for attempting to spread the Carmel fire as the fire still raged, police revealed Wednesday. The two, residents of Nazareth ages 14 and 15, are accused of setting fires in the Ilut forest.
The two young arsonists set a fire in Ilut on Friday, then fled from the scene. The fire caused significant damage, and forced firefighters to abandon their efforts fighting the Carmel fire in order to battle the blaze in Ilut.
The two were arrested on Monday. They were taken to court Wednesday for an extension of their remand.
Several smaller fires broke out as rescue workers battled the Carmel fire, and police suspect a coordinated arson effort. Fires were reported near Basmat Tivon, Usafiya, and the northern border.
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
Israel isn't the only place where there were fires over the weekend. Lebanon had some 120 forest fires break out over the weekend, as they have had the same hot dry weather for the last few months that we have had. (By the way, it finally rained this morning).
According to official figures released by the country’s Civil Defense ministry, about 120 fires broke out on Saturday and Sunday, prompting Lebanese President Michel Suleiman to visit affected areas.
Political bickering in the country delayed all developmental projects, Suleiman said during a tour of the affected village of Fitri, 45 km north of Beirut.
“Fires have reached the homes of people who have nothing to do with politics,” the president said. Several of Fitri’s residents were forced to flee their homes after flames reached closes to the village’s residential areas.
Suleiman said real crisis management strategies should be carried out in order to douse raging fires.
Several media reports said Lebanon has asked Turkey for help to put off the flames raging in the woods. Apart from three firefighting helicopters, Lebanon lacks equipment to extinguish forest fires that erupt on a near yearly basis.
In fact, Turkey's aircraft went to Lebanon from Israel.
Lebanese Interior Minister Ziad Baroud said 120 fires erupting on the same day all “raises serious questions about the possible involvement of arsonists.”
In an interview with LBC television while inspecting the blaze-hit Jbeil town of Fatri, Baroud voiced his fears that some of the fires might have been intentionally set, noting “that the army’s helicopters and the Sikorsky firefighting aircraft currently engaged in combating the fire are not enough.”
The minister revealed that “the interior ministry is working on providing fifty 4×4 vehicles, each with a capacity of 50,000 liters, for rapid intervention upon the eruption of any blaze.”
Haifa Deputy Police Chief dies of injuries from fire
Haifa Deputy Police Chief Ahuva Tomer, the first woman commander in the police force, died this morning (Monday) of burns sustained in Haifa's Carmel forest fire. Her funeral will be held at 3:00 Monday afternoon.
Tomer had been in critical condition since rushing into flames to check the condition of the dozens of Prisons Service cadets trapped in the deadly Carmel blaze on Thursday.
Responding to news of Tomer's death, Police Insp.-Gen. David Cohen said Sunday, "Ahuva our friend, decorated commander, brave and beloved iron woman, that stood through difficult tests of fire and prevailed, she lived and died as a hero." Cohen continued, "The entire Israel Police family is suffering with sadness and pain today."
Tomer was captured on camera minutes before the tragedy, driving together with a staff officer toward the blaze, telling reporters that she was on her way to check first-hand what the situation was in the Carmel Forest. Seconds before she sped off in her police car, Tomer expressed concern for mothers and children in nearby Kibbutz Beit Oren, who were being evacuated.
Tomer continued to issue commands over her field radio until she became trapped in the blaze, and the commands became urgent cries for assistance. By the time rescuers reached the senior commander, she was badly burned all over her body.
After being rushed to the hospital, medical teams spent two hours resuscitating her, then transferring her to the burn unit at Rambam.
In an era when senior police officers tend to reach the headlines for negative reasons, Tomer has consistently made headlines as a groundbreaker in the Israel Police.
In 1997, Tomer became the first woman commander of an Israel Police station, taking command of police in the northern city of Nahariya. In December 2006, Tomer became the first female district-level operations commander in the Israel Police, serving as operations commander in the Northern District. The Northern District is comparable to the Northern Command in the IDF, and no woman in the IDF or in the police had ever held such a high rank in the field of operational command.
Less than three years later, Tomer again made history when she was appointed to lead the massive Haifa Station and became the first woman to command a major police station, with over 500 police under her direct command.
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.
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
A 50-year old Jewish man from Beit Zayit has been arrested and charged with negligently setting Sunday's forest fire that burned through 150 dunams of the Jerusalem Forest.
