NEWS UPDATE
Nomi Verchovsky stands in front of her home in Ein Hod, partially damaged by
the Carmel Forest fire.
Self-Examination
Fire services: Israel's weak link.
Jerusalem/JTA
T
he Fire and Rescue Services
organization is the weak link in
Israel's emergency readiness, a
report said last week.
The report by Israel's State Comptroller
Micha Lindenstrauss said fire preparedness
is the responsibility of the Interior Ministry,
and it called on the government to "imme-
diately stop the foot-dragging regarding the
fire services and the handing-off of respon-
sibility from one minister to another."
"The ministers who have any asso-
ciation with the issue —starting with
the finance minister and including the
defense minister, who is responsible for
the National Emergency Authority —
must join together to immediately carry
out the government's decision to establish
a national fire and rescue authority and
to organize the fire services in a way
that suits its purpose — something that
should have already been done."
The report was part of a larger one
about the failures in homefront readiness
in light of the Second Lebanon War, but
was released last week in the wake of the
Carmel Forest fire that started Dec. 2 and
was extinguished Dec. 5.
Using information from 2007 to 2009, the
report noted that Interior Minister Eli Yishai
had warned the government regarding the
dire state of the Fire and Rescue Services,
something Yishai has been saying since fin-
gers began pointing at him even before the
fire had been completely put out.
A report in 2007, following the Second
Lebanon War, found numerous deficien-
cies in the services' readiness for emergen-
cies, including the fact that firefighters
could be called up for military reserve duty
during a time of war, depleting the fire ser-
vices' already thin manpower.
In May 2008, the government voted to
establish a national fire and rescue author-
ity but it has not been implemented.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu proposed a regional firefighting
force in phone calls to world leaders.
The Israeli leader spoke on Dec. 7 "with
Greek, Russian, Egyptian, Jordanian, and
Palestinian Authority leaders to propose
the creation of a regional firefighting force,
which would be deployable regionwide in
response to fires and other natural disas-
ters',' according to a summary sheet pro-
vided by the U.S. Agency for International
Development, which is coordinating U.S.
assistance to Israel in the wake of the dev-
astating forest fire in Israel's north.
Ein Hod Effects
Netanyahu's government has come under
sharp criticism in the Israeli media for
being ill prepared for the fires.
Last week, Dan Chamizer stood outside
the small grocery store in Ein Hod where
neighbors exchanged news of how some
homes rung by fire miraculously were
spared. The less fortunate, those whose
homes were destroyed, came to the store
to pick up blankets and bundles of clothes
and supplies delivered by volunteers.
About 20 homes in the village were
destroyed or damaged by the fire.
"This was not a natural disaster, but a
disaster created by people who disdain
nature," Chamizer said, looking out at the
black stain of burnt forest across a nearby
clearing.
He had harsh words for Prime Minister
Netanyahu, who Chamizer said "acts as if
he's manager of one big air show. It's all
spin. As if he stopped this fire, instead of
saying, `I-head a govenirneht–that failed
even though the writing was on the wall.'"
Chamizer noted that in 1998 a large for-
est fire also burned several homes in Ein
Hod and caused significant damage in the
Carmel Forest, but official recommenda-
tions to strengthen the firefighting services
were never implemented.
Controversial Evacuation
Like other Ein Hod residents, he is angry
that the police evacuated the village when
some homeowners who know the terrain
well wanted to stay behind to assist the
firefighters.
Several snuck back into the village after
being evacuated. Chamizer credited their
return as the reason they were able to save
their homes.
Ein Hod's crooked streets and courtyards
are now full of workers from the electric and
phone companies repairing infrastructure
damage, laying new underground cables
and fixing telecommunication lines.
Across a two-lane road on the opposite
hill sits the Yemin Orde Youth Village,
which lost about a dozen buildings to
the fire, including a section that housed
orphans from the former Soviet Union.
The village, which specializes as a home
for adolescent survivors of trauma and
displacement, dates back to the early years
of the state, when it helped provide psy-
chological support and a home to Jewish
orphans who survived the Holocaust.
Yemin Orde has turned to the public for
donations of money, clothes, school supplies
and other materials lost to the fire, including
home appliances and furniture.
Helping Hands
The national branches of the three larg-
est U.S. Jewish religious denominations
launched fire assistance funds and asked
their rabbis to address the topic in their
sermons last Shabbat. Dozens of the
largest U.S. organizations, including the
Jewish federation system, the American
Jewish Committee and B'nai B'rith
International, also started funds.
The heaviest lifting in the nonprofit
world likely will be done by the Jewish
National Fund, which since Israel's found-
ing has been responsible for the foresta-
tion of the country.
The JNF has launched a $10 million cam-
paign to be split between reforestation and
other causes, such as rebuilding tourism
in the area. In less than a week, JNF raised
nearly $2 million. A number of organiza-
tions, such as Hadassah, have pledged to
help JNF pay for more trees.
Reforesting the area will be a slow pro-
cess, according to the JNF's director of for-
estry for_the_northern-region, Omri Bonneh.
For the first year, JNF says it won't plant any
trees, allowing the land to replenish itself
Also Stepping Up
Where American money will go is still
being determined.
The American Jewish Committee
pledged $100,000 for reforestation, saying
it will plant 10,000 trees to commemorate
the 42 people — mostly police cadets
from the Israeli Prisons Service — killed
in the wildfire.
B'nai B'rith International, which in sev-
eral days collected $12,000, will use the
money to address unmet needs, accord-
ing to its vice president of programming,
Rhonda Love.
Magen David Adom, Israel's version
of the Red Cross, deployed hundreds of
medics, paramedics, emergency vehicles
and volunteers to the fire. It's American
fundraising arm, the American Friends of
the Magen David Adorn, raised $150,000
online since the fire broke out, according to
its director of marketing, Robert Kern.
A number of organizations are focusing
on helping the Yemin. Orde youth village.
Hadassah is providing space for 500
families dislocated by the fire by opening
several youth villages with which it is asso-
ciated. The Jewish Agency for Israel has
made space in its facilities for Yemin Orde
to continue operating.
The American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee helped out in the evacuation of
residents and supplied emergency needs,
such as food and blankets. Now the JDC
is planning to provide programs for the
disabled, psycho-social support and emer-
gency preparedness, according to spokes-
man Michael Geller.
The Jewish Agency brought hundreds of
children from the stricken area to Tel Aviv
for respite, and planned to bring 4,000 in all.
The JDC and Jewish Agency are working
on coordinating youth volunteers.
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December6
2010
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