Fires in Israel

41 people have died, more than 13,000 evacuated from their homes, villages and a kibbutz completely ruined and forests still burning in the Carmel Mountain area of Israel because of a blazing fire that Israel’s evidently bankrupt fire-fighting system does not seem to be able to contain.

Israel on Fire I

Various countries are coming to Israel’s aid, sending fire fighting planes, other equipment and material. Bulgaria has even sent a team of 100 to help.

Lately, Israel is rightly preoccupied with the notion that it is being delegitimized in the world. Israeli politicians should not mistake humanitarian aid for political support.

Israel on Fire II

How would Israel have reacted had the fires in the Carmel been the result of a Hezbollah attack? Fortunately, that is not the case – otherwise we would have had a full-blown war in the Middle East.

How much death and misery would the world have been spared had the attack on the twin towers in New York been just an attack of a madman or the same damage caused by an earthquake? No Iraq war, no Afghanistan war and a weaker Iran and this is just for starters.

Israel on Fire III

Two years ago, ultra-religious Israeli Member of Parliament Mr Benizri explained that an earthquake that had taken place at the time was God's punishment for gay sex.

Now Benizri (like quite a few of the other ultra-orthodox party leaders) is in jail for corruption. I wonder whether his experience in jail has changed his mind about the evils of homosexuality or has he added the fires in the Carmel Mountains to the catalogue of God's wrathful acts?

Holy Alliances

Two stories that have recently appeared in the press:

Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, has intervened with Israeli President Peres to grant amnesty to an Israeli in jail. Curiously, the Israeli in question is not a member of his own Church but a Jew: ultra-orthodox Shlomo Benizri, a former Israeli cabinet member, is serving a four-year jail sentence for taking bribes and for breach of trust.

Is Theophilus just a particularly nice man or is this somehow connected to the fact that the Greek Orthodox Church owns very much land in Israel (including the land on which the Knesset, Israel’s parliament is built) and that Shas, Benizri’s party, is a very potent power broker in the country?

The Catholic Church has condemned the French government for attempting to prohibit the wearing of Burqas in public. The Church explained that retaliation on Christians in Muslim countries might follow.

File note for future reference: in dealings with the Vatican - blackmail works.