World

ISRAEL'S FOREST FIRE

Response from page 29

Aftermath from page 29

Two firefighters try to douse a tree with a small stream of water.

A 14-year-old resident of the
Druze village of Ussfiya was arrested
Monday after admitting to starting the
fire. The teen reportedly said he was
smoking a water pipe and threw a live
coal into an open area before returning
to school.
The arrest was announced hours after
two teenage brothers from the same vil-
lage arrested over the weekend on sus-
picion of negligence in starting the fire
were released from detention by a Haifa
court. The teens had been accused of

Israeli officials tried to contain the blaze.

lighting a bonfire near their home that
sparked the blaze.
High winds and dry conditions
prompted by Israel's parched winter
provided fuel for the blaze, which began
tearing through northern Israel on Dec.
2. Northern Israel is covered by fields
and trees, some natural forests and
others planted by pioneers during the
British Mandate period. Others were
planted with donations from diaspora
Jews through the Jewish National Fund.
With its green hills, the country's

north has a Mediterranean flavor dis-
tinct from its more Middle Eastern
south, which is covered by desert. After
the fire, the Israeli government said it
would invest the resources to make the
north green again.
The fire's rapid spread revealed a stra-
tegic weakness that could be exploited
by its enemies, Israeli commentators
wrote.
Meanwhile, numerous figures in the
Arab world cited the fire as punishment
from God for Israel's treatment of the
Palestinians and its occupation of Arab
lands. The Palestinian prime minister in
the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, said the
fire was a "strike from Allah."
The spiritual leader of the Israeli
Orthodox Shas Party, Rabbi Ovadia
Yosef, also said the fire was divine pun-
ishment, attributing the blaze to the sin
of lack of observance of the Sabbath.
During the height of the blaze,
Israeli's chief Sephardi rabbi, Shlomo
Amar, led thousands in prayer at the
Western Wall. Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi
Yona Metzger called on Israelis to give
charity and read Psalms to bring about
the fire's end.
For its part, the Israeli government
issued a rare call for international
assistance. Among the countries that
responded were Egypt, Jordan, Turkey,
Cyprus, Greece, Germany, Russia,

Aftermath on page 32

30

December 9 • 2010

offered them their homes as the fire hit
their village. That's what I love about
our country, the Jewish neshamah
(soul)!"
Richard Nodel,
president of the
Jewish Community
Relations Council of
Metropolitan Detroit,
was in Israel to cel-
ebrate his mother's
90th birthday when
the fire broke out.
Richard Nodel
Though he wasn't in
the north of Israel,
he said, "It was very visible. There
were fire trucks and personnel on the
roads all around the country."
While he admired the resolve of the
Israeli people, he also shared their
disappointment because "it could have
been avoided."
"It was tragically apparent that a
country that leads the world in so
much cutting-edge technology was
caught flat-footed. To not have a single
firefighting aircraft in the whole coun-
try was inexcusable he said, referenc-
ing a 2007 Israeli government report
outlining firefighting deficiencies in
the wake of the Lebanon War that
hadn't been addressed.
Comparing it to the American
people's reaction to Hurricane Katrina,
he said, "People are saddened by the
loss of life and property and disheart-
ened that the government and officials
weren't doing the job they should have
been doing."
He also noted that many of the
trees destroyed were paid for by Jews
worldwide over many years through
the Jewish National Fund (JNF). "They
all went up in flames, so I feel a bit of
a personal loss:' he said.
Not surprisingly, the JNF is already
hard at work.
"As the caretakers of the land of
Israel, the Jewish National Fund is
launching a special emergency cam-
paign, `Northern Renewal: From Black
to Green; which will fund much-need-
ed firefighting equipment and refor-
estation efforts in the Carmel Forest,
with the goal of raising $10 million,"
said Dr. Leora Bar Levav, president of
the Michigan Region of JNF.
Following the 2007 Lebanon War,
JNF purchased small, mobile fire-
trucks to enter forests to put out iso-
lated fires started by rockets, but they
were not intended for such a large and
fast-moving fire. Visit www.jnf.org to
plant trees or contribute to the special
campaign.

Response on page 32