All of today’s op. eds. pertain to the Carmel fire catastrophe and its aftermath.
Yediot Aharonot opines that „The firefighters have every right to despise their workplace, but they act, look and sound like fighters from an elite army unit.” Now, in the aftermath, the author calls for „First taking care of the people, and afterwards all of the rest: Firefighting planes (those that are urgently needed, as well as those which are not), equipment and fire retardant. And there is nothing other than to remorse that everything that could have been done before the tragedy, will be done only afterwards.”
Ma’ariv talks about „Interior Minister Eli Yishai’s joke. In the war against his Shas political adversary, Rabbi Haim Amsalem, the Interior Minister had no shortage of manpower; he had no organizational problems and no old, dilapidated equipment.”
Yisrael Hayom argues that „It must be examined if it is best that the Fire and Rescue Services will be under the authority of the Interior Ministry, the nature of which is impossible to change, or whether it should be under the authority of the Ministry of Defense or the Ministry of Public Security.”
The Jerusalem Post notes that „One of the few positive developments to emerge in the wake of Israel’s worst-ever inferno has been the tremendous outpouring of international aid, including from the Muslim world,” but adds that „perhaps the most disturbing development has been a mind-boggling rash of locally concocted arson attempts” The editor opines that there is a „disturbing phenomenon of homegrown terrorism that has contaminated a small but violent minority,” and adds that „One of the lessons to be learned from the fire raging on Mount Carmel, along with the dire imperative to revamp our firefighting infrastructure and manpower, is the importance of restoring law and order to the Galilee.”
Haaretz calls for the resignation of Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai in wake of the Carmel fire, and states that since he took upon himself responsibility for the state’s firefighting and rescue services, he „is not a victim of the disaster, but rather one of its main culprits. This culpability is meaningless if he does not resign and if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is afraid to sack him.”
BreuerPress-info
