To sooner see the land go up in flames than coexist with a Jewish state - by Sohrab Ahmari

...The bigger error would be to treat Arab-Israeli peace like a real-estate deal. An avid deal maker would be inclined to see the conflict as a matter of offering just the right inducements to the parties. But that’s precisely the failed approach that has disappointed successive American presidents for half a century, since it doesn’t take the Palestinian ideology into account. Such bargaining leads nowhere with a people willing to risk burning down the land their future state would inherit.

Sohrab Ahmari..
Wall Street Journal..
01 December '16..
Link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-lesson-of-the-arson-jihad-in-israel-1480627358

Emergency services in Israel combated brush fires across the country for a week beginning Nov. 22, ranging from Haifa to the Galilee to Jerusalem. Hundreds of homes burned down and nearly 16 square miles of forest land were damaged before the fires were contained this week. Dozens of people suffered smoke inhalation, and some 70,000 had to be evacuated.

It was an almost perfect metaphor for the Palestinian national movement.

Of the 39 largest fires—there were 1,700 separate events in all—29 were ignited by Palestinian arsonists. “We have also identified an additional 10 sites where arson was attempted but didn’t succeed,” Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told me in a phone interview Thursday. “In some cases we were able to catch the suspects by camera or drone. In others we found Molotov cocktails at the scene.”

He added: “All the big fires were in Israel or in Jewish towns or near Jewish towns. There was no Arab city where there was a big fire inside.”

Police have arrested 35 suspects on arson and incitement charges so far, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to “prosecute anyone committing these acts so that all can see that anyone who tries to burn down the State of Israel will face the fullest punishment.”

Having tried and failed to destroy Israel through violent rioting, all-out invasion, suicide bombings, campus boycotts, and random stabbing and vehicular attacks, Palestinians are now literally setting the Holy Land on fire. The message, evident to all but their friends in Washington and Brussels, is that they would sooner see the land go up in flames than coexist with a Jewish state.

Question. Will Mahmoud Abbas pay salaries to the arsonists?

...If Abbas' act of sending fire trucks to help Israel was a sincere act indicating that he is no longer a terrorist leader, he now has a great opportunity to prove it. Right now while he has the world's attention, having made this small gesture in the direction of peace, let him take a serious step. Abbas should announce that not only will the arsonists not be rewarded with PA salaries, but he is changing Palestinian law and canceling the payments to all imprisoned terrorists altogether. And what better opportunity than now to announce this, during Fatah's Seventh General Conference. If...

Itamar Marcus..
Palestinian Media Watch/JPost..
01 December '16..

While Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas was accepting praise for sending Palestinian firefighters to help put out fires in Israel, the PA Finance Ministry was busy doing the paper work to start paying salaries to the Palestinian arsonists who were arrested for setting many of those same fires. So far Israel has arrested 23 suspected arsonists connected to the hundreds of fires that raged across Israel last week burning more than 500 homes and 32,000 acres of forests and national parks. According to Palestinian law documented by PMW, anyone imprisoned for "resisting the occupation" receives a high monthly salary. Therefore, all of those convicted and imprisoned for arson will receive PA salaries "from the day of arrest until the day of release."

Of course, it is not only arson-terrorists who receive a PA salary. All Palestinian, Israeli Arab and Arab terrorists from any country who are imprisoned are rewarded with high salaries from the PA. (See PMW Special Report) According to PA law and practice, "resisting the occupation" includes any Arab imprisoned for attacking Israelis by any means, including throwing a stone at a car, driving a car into people at bus stops, building bombs for suicide bombers to blow up at cafes, or shooting and stabbing civilians to death in their sleep. Since the PA automatically includes anyone who attacked Israelis or their possessions as "fighters" who are "resisting the occupation," there is no justification under Palestinian law and practice not to include last week's arsonists among the Palestinian "heroes" who receive monthly salaries.

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The author is director of Palestinian Media Watch. In response to PMW's recent report on PA salaries to terrorists, entitled "The PA's Billion Dollar Fraud" Britain froze 25 million pounds, one third of its foreign aid to the PA, and the US Senate passed a bill to cut off from US yearly funding to the PA the amount the PA pays to terrorists.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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The Real Story Begins: One Week After Haifa’s Fires - by Sheri Oz

...There was no rancour in the tone of anyone with whom I spoke. Not a representative random sample, I know. But the feeling in the air was: we will overcome! The blackened hills made me feel sick to my stomach, but you could see the preparations for renewal and rejuvenation and I could almost imagine the budding new branches that will poke their way out when spring comes in a few months....Give us time to lick our wounds, orient ourselves and wake up to a new day. We ARE a stiff-necked people, stubborn as Hell.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
01 December '16..








Haifa’s fire story, like Israel’s story, is one of renewal and rebuilding. The fire totally destroyed over 500 homes, leaving over 1500 residents with no place to return as the city got the all clear. But that is only where this story begins. The blackened patches of earth will not stay black forever and the homes will be rebuilt. This is the first article in a series.

* * * * *

I live in a neighbourhood in Haifa that was not affected by the fire and I was on a trip to the Negev while parts of the city I love were going up in flames. I returned after calm had been restored and those who could, were returning to their homes, while those who could not, had to start piecing their lives together out of the ashes. On Wednesday morning, November 30th, a week after the fires had started, I decided to drive around the city and see what footprints the fire had left on Haifa.

Driving up to the French Carmel for my Pilates session from Bat Galim, where I live, was no different yesterday than any other time I had ever gone by that route. Just about every road longer than a couple of blocks curves its way around the contours of the hills on which Haifa grew. And around each curve is a new vista, whether that is a view of the Mediterranean Sea or of the valleys between the hills, or of the the coastal plain that reaches from the beach and deeper east and north of Haifa to other towns and cities. It is a city-with-a-view-from-almost-anywhere.

After Pilates class, I drove toward Old Romema, one of the places the fire had struck. As soon as I neared the last roundabout before reaching Pica Street, a major road connecting several neighbourhoods, I thought I smelled the smell of a dead fire. A campfire leaves a very slight dead-fire odour when you extinguish it and this was unmistakable. At the same time, I wondered if I was just imagining it, if my mind was playing tricks on me. The fire had been out for days . . . was it possible for the smell to linger this long?

I was soon to discover that, whereas each curve in Haifa’s roads generally brings a new view, it was now either to bring a new smell that would forewarn me of the blackened hills I was about to see or a clean smell that made it seem there were never any fires at all....

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Arson, Stupidity and the Lesson Not Yet Learned

...Those same Arabs who want to push us into the sea, but have not yet worked out how, seem to think that by setting fire to the country we will run for the sea, and be gone. But they are wrong, we will let the fires burn, our fires, the fires of rebuilding and the fires of caring. I am already planning the party when we make a chanukat bayit in our rebuilt home, and all the wonderful caring people who have given us the strength to get there are not only invited but expected to turn up.

Ilya Meyer..
ilyameyer.com..
30 November '16..

Here’s a first-hand account by one of the affected families in Neve Tsuf.

I give below the first-hand account of Rochelle Cohen, exactly as she wrote it.

Two things emerge from her harrowing yet inspiring text:

1. The Arab mindset is still stuck in the primitive barbarism of burning people alive – it is part of their culture, their heritage, their religion. In 2016.

2. The sheer stupidity of the arsonists and their supporters in Fatah, the PLO, Hamas and others. They STILL haven’t internalized that every time they try (and sometimes succeed) in destroying lives and property, the only – the ONLY – effect it has is to weld Jews and Israelis still more closely together.

You have to be particularly stupid – or a Fatah leader – not to understand this simple fact.

Here’s Rochelle’s first-hand verbatim account:

Nobody is going to believe me when I tell them that having to flee with our community in the middle of the night, close the door on our house, convinced I would never see the house again, and leaving behind our firefighting son, and friends, and then returning to what is only a very partial and unlivable house, has been a positive experience, but that is the case. Why? let me share with you a little.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Politicizing Israel's Destructive Wildfires - by Simon Plosker

...Are The Guardian and AFP completely incapable of avoiding linking anything and everything to the settlement issue, even devastating wildfires?

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
27 November '16..








The AFP and The Guardian, which republished the wire service’s story on the Israeli wildfires, can barely contain their excitement.

AFP’s headline:

And The Guardian’s:

Yet while AFP’s headline emphasizes Jewish settlers and The Guardian’s focus is the “occupied West Bank,” a significant part of the AFP story also covers major blazes in Haifa and the village of Nataf, neither of which are located in the West Bank.

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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What lies behind the conflagration - by Arnold Roth

...It's now early Sunday morning, and those fires and the price paid by Israeli society are very much in the news here. Much less reported are the very widespread sounds of celebration from right across the Arab world, particularly via the social media.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
27 November '16..

The New York Times' assessment of the massive fires that had erupted all over Israel in the previous 48 hours was summed up in these striking opening sentences of Isabel Kershner' report this past Friday:

Parts of the port city of Haifa in northern Israel were ablaze on Thursday as wildfires raged through the country for a third day, devouring forests, damaging homes and prompting the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

Asked how long Haifa was likely to be battling the blazes, Mayor Yona Yahav told reporters, “This is a question that has to be referred to God.” Israeli officials said the fires had been fanned by unusually strong winds and made worse by a dry atmosphere, but they also said they suspected that many of them had been caused by arson and negligence. Dozens of people have been slightly affected by smoke inhalation, but no serious injuries or fatalities have been reported.
["As Wildfires Rage, Israel Suggests Arson and Asks for Foreign Help", New York Times, November 24, 2016]

For us, the tone of that piece was set by "Israel Suggests Arson" in the headline and the words we have bolded above: "slightly affected by smoke inhalation, but no serious injuries..." Knowing the scale of the massive blazes and which places were - and which were not - affected makes the wording appear especially shabby. It goes on to make mention of Israeli concerns, articulated by the government minister in charge of public security, Gilad Erdan, that

"the professional assessment was that almost half the fires were the result of arson."

For many, the details of that professional assessment might have been something worth knowing.

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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They burn, we build - by Dror Eydar

...But we are not only well-versed in disasters; we know well how to rise from the ashes and from the dust. They burn and we build, that is, after all, the fixed historical contract. Haifa and the Carmel Forest will be rehabilitated; the same is true for Nataf in the Jerusalem Hills and for Talmon in the Judean Hills, as well as for other places. The good land will flourish once again, despite those who rise up against it.

Dror Eydar..
Israel Hayom..
25 November '16..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=17741

I also want to put out the fire, but it burns within us. I am trying to extinguish it, but it insists on burning.

And then they preach to us that this is not the time for fanning the flames, that we should focus on putting them out and saving lives. Jews, do not anger your neighbors too much, they might get upset. Accept the ruling from above. On social media and in official places, they are speaking about the "muezzin bill" that caused the fire. Earlier, they said that the Temple Mount caused the stabbing attacks, and that the occupation and the oppression and a variety of other reasons left our neighbors with no choice but to set out on a campaign of killing and destruction. As early as 1963, writer A. B. Yehoshua drafted this rule in his story, ''Facing the Forests.'' The forest was burned to expose the "Zionist crimes." For a moment, I was reminded of the riots in Paris in 2006; there too, they crucified anyone who dared criticize the appetite for destruction of Muslim Parisians. They are the only downtrodden people in the world. Sure.

Our land is burning not just because of accidents (and some of the fires were indeed caused by negligence), but also because of the behavior of arsonists who have adopted the wrongful belief: "Let it be neither ours nor yours."

Last night...they tried to murder - by Paula R. Stern

Pyro-terrorism - a fancy word the doesn't really show the magnitude of almost 200 people injured, 75,000 people evacuated from their homes, more than 550 apartments and homes damaged or destroyed, old age homes evacuated, 90 year old people moved on stretchers, a 100 year old person hurried through the smoke.

Paula R. Stern..
A Soldier's Mother..
25 November '16..

Last night, Palestinians set four fires around the small mountain village of Beit Meir - including one to block the exit of this isolated place perched high on the mountains as you climb towards Jerusalem. It's a beautiful, stunning area, surrounded by forest and green. Or it was.

Last night, Palestinians set four fires...designed to trap and murder a small village.

(Continue to Full Post & Video)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Israel in a picture? One of our heroes saving a part of our heritage - by Paula R. Stern

...This is Israel. On the news, the firefighters look exhausted. More volunteers are pouring into the area. The fires are under control; security forces are on alert and have caught some of the terrorists. Israel in a picture? One of our heroes saving a part of our heritage.

Paula R. Stern..
A Soldier's Mother..
24 November '16..

Do you want to understand Israel at this moment? It's here in this picture. We are rushing to save all that is precious to us. We are under attack. Hundreds of fires have been started. More than 50%, over 200 fires, have already been confirmed as arson. They are calling it the Fire Intifada.

Fire fighters are going door to door in apartment buildings to make sure no one is inside. Someone runs up to them and tells them there is a woman in an apartment - and the camera shows them running to the apartment.

Now look at this picture. They are saving people, trying to save homes...and something more. The essence of what we are will not be burned in these fires of hate.

And so, in addition to saving what homes we can, what lives we must, here's a picture of firefighters who went into a synagogue and saved the Torah scrolls.

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Know that these are the firefighters of the State of Israel - by Maj. Dan Josephberg

...I left home to the sounds of my small children crying, saying that I had been on duty the day before instead of at home and that they had expected to spend time with me in the afternoon. I got up, left everything and went to the station. This is the essence of a firefighter's job.

Maj. Dan Josephberg..
Israel Hayom..
24 November '16..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=17731


On Wednesday morning, I finished a 24-hour shift as commander at the Netanya District Fire Department. We participated in 15 operational incidents, including a dispatch to the scene of a traffic accident to free trapped passengers, dealing with a gas leak and, of course, putting out fires. I came home for a short rest, and in the early afternoon, there were initial reports about a serious fire in the north. At around 1:00 p.m., the phone rang and the dispatcher said: "Danny, a major fire has broken out in Zikhron Yaakov, you're being called in to the station."

I left home to the sounds of my small children crying, saying that I had been on duty the day before instead of at home and that they had expected to spend time with me in the afternoon. I got up, left everything and went to the station.

This is the essence of a firefighter's job. It is no ordinary job -- it is a calling. Being a firefighter means knowing that at any given moment, whether you are on a shift or at home, you may be called up. Being a firefighter means working nights, weekends and holidays -- when the whole country is at home. Being a firefighter means running into places that other people are escaping from. Running into the unknown. Being a firefighter means seeing tough sights, hearing screams from people who are trapped, smelling the scent of death.

But being a firefighter, more than anything, is knowing that people's lives depend only on you, that there is no one else who will do the job.

My firefighter friends have spent the last three days at a wide range of fires and other incidents. We fought to save lives. We fought to save property, and we are still fighting to save the nature and beauty of the land of Israel. For three days in a row, with almost no rest, we have been going from fire to fire, answering every call, even when we are tired, even when we have already finished our shifts, even when it seems near impossible to stop the fire due to strong winds. We do not give up. And despite the force and the danger of the fire, we win battle after battle, because we know that our loss would mean lives cut short and property burned.

Anything is possible; but we really, really need to care - by Laura Ben-David

...There are rare things that unite us Jews and particularly Jews here in Israel. Left, right and center; religious and secular, can come together about pitifully few things. I dare someone to tell me, regardless of their political or religious positions, that they cannot support the sanctity of our holy books, the sanctity of our very lives. So we agree, but we also have to care. Assuming we care, we also have to act.

Laura Ben-David..
Times of Israel..
07 February '16..

We know how to react.

When right-wing Israeli “settlers” purportedly snuck into a Mosque in Mughayer near Ramallah and set it on fire last November, Israelis reacted – strongly. Condemnations came fast and furious for whomever could commit such an act.

When right-wing extremist Israelis allegedly torched the offices of Left-wing Israeli NGO B’Tselem in January, there was an immediate rush to judgment. The vilification of the right wing, and even of the government and Netanyahu himself, was swift, fierce and extensive.

In both instances strong words were used, by the media and general population, against a whole segment of Israeli society. People across the political spectrum were quick to condemn anyone who might have committed such acts, utterly disavowing the unknown guilty parties.

Except there weren’t any. Guilty parties that is. In both instances the fires were proven to be electrical. Yet in both instances, with no proof whatsoever, too many of us jumped into the fray as a whole segment of the population was aggressively and vocally attacked.

We know how to react. We know how to write, how to speak, how to shout to the world when something is not okay. We know social media. We know how to run campaigns. We know how to tell stories. Yet there are times, for seemingly inexplicable reasons, that we don’t.

Deep in the heart of Judea, about fifteen minutes from where I live, a small synagogue was dedicated not long ago to Gil-ad, Eyal and Naftali, the three boys who were kidnapped and murdered by Hamas in 2014. In fact the little synagogue near Karmei Tzur in Gush Etzion overlooks the area where the boys’ bodies were found, making it indeed a memorial of sorts.

The synagogue, though small and rustic, is stocked with holy books and is used as a place for prayer, a center for youth group activities, and as a tourist stop for backpackers and others.

This past Friday night, the synagogue, which is less than 100 meters from people’s homes, was attacked. This was clearly no accident, but a deliberate attack. Prayer books and Torah scrolls were collected and piled up, and set on fire. Seeing all those charred holy books was shocking to the officials who examined them, reminiscent of very dark days for Jews and for humanity. Police found footsteps leading right from the synagogue to the nearby Arab village of Halhul.

We know how to react. But we didn’t. Netanyahu has called on the world to condemn the torching. Why should they? We barely even condemned it ourselves. It took a day and a half for some of the bigger news outlets in Israel to report on it at all. When the B’Tselem offices were ablaze just a month ago, the damning – and incorrect – media reports went out even before the fire went out. Why was this time so different?

Who Set the Fire and Why?

Moshe Feiglin
Manhigut Yehudit
28 Kislev, 5771 (Dec. 5, '10)

Translated from Ma'ariv's NRG website



This article is being written two hours before Shabbat (Miketz). The radio is incessantly reporting on the fire raging in the Carmel Mountains. The focus of the reports is twofold: The heartwarming response of the Israeli public to the victims of the fire, with families from around the country volunteering to open their homes to those people who have lost or had to leave theirs. The second focus is on finding the guilty party or parties. Who is guilty for the fact that Israel doesn't have amphibian planes? Whose fault is it that Israel doesn't have more fire fighters? Who is to blame for their lack of basic equipment? The finger-pointing is gathering steam. Just one question is not being asked: Maybe the guilty party is he who struck the match?

There is no question that Israel must better prepare itself for fires. Perhaps G-d is giving us a "fire drill" in advance of a strategic attack. Perhaps somebody will finally remove the dangerous chemicals being stored in Haifa Bay to storage areas far from population centers. Maybe Israel will finally buy amphibian planes, capable of filling huge amounts of sea water within minutes and releasing them on the flames before they get out of control. There are certainly many technical lessons to be learned and implemented from this Chanukah tragedy. But when all is said and done, we are looking for all those responsible everywhere but where they really are. The question is not, 'Why wasn't the fire extinguished sooner?' but rather, 'Who lit it?'

This time the fire started in the illegal Asufiya garbage dump?
Perhaps.
And no proof of arson has been found for the fires that broke out simultaneously in nearby Kiryat Bialik?
True.
And no perpetrators have been found for the fires that broke out at the same time in the south, even closing down some train service there?
Also true.

Nevertheless, it was clear to me – and to all the other people who are 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 nut-jobs, not by criminals. Arson motivated by nationalism. Arson by Arab citizens of Israel.

Everyone is busy figuring out how many tons of fire extinguisher we have to keep in storage, but they are afraid to touch upon the real reason for the fires. Please allow me to address an issue that is extremely non-politically-correct: Who is setting these fires, and why?

(Read full article "Who Set the Fire and Why?")

The Palestinians: What Is Really Destroying the Chance for Peace

Khaled Abu Toameh
Hudson New York
07 December '10

It is sad and abhorrant 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.

(Read full article)

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"Forest Jihad"

Elder of Ziyon
05 December '10

A very interesting article by Jonathan Fighel written two years ago for the International Institute of Counter-Terrorism:

From the beginning of September 2008, a renewed concern emanated from Western intelligence agencies to the effect that Al Qaeda terrorists were planning a “global fireball”, in a departure from its war on the West.[1] Deliberately lighting forest fires in Europe, the US and Australia, would not only stretch emergency services, but would also leave insurance companies facing multi-billion dollar claims, as the credit crunch bites.[2] The fires would also create a pollution disaster, with billions of tons of climate-change gases escaping into the atmosphere. The so-called “forest jihad” is being championed by Islamic scholars and Osama Bin Laden’s terror strategists who believe setting fire to dry woodlands will produce maximum damage at minimum risk.

Already back in November 2007, radical Islamic forums spelled out the terrorists’ mindset in graphic terms. One of the Arabic web sites affiliated with Al Qaeda’s ideas, called “Al-Ikhlas Islamic Network”, posted a long and detailed message, in which it was argued that lighting fires is an effective form of action, justified in Islamic law under the "eye for an eye" doctrine. The posting instructs remembering the "Forest Jihad" during the summer months, noting that "fires cause economic damage and pollution, tie up security agencies and can take months to extinguish.” Imagine, if after all the losses caused by such an event, a jihadist organization were to claim responsibility for the forest fires," the website says, "you can hardly begin to imagine the level of fear that would take hold of people in the United States, Europe, Russia and Australia."…

(Read full post)

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Background: Widespread Arab Arson Underplayed By Media

Dr. Aaron Lerner
IMRA
5 December '10

While the main fire in the Carmel could very well turn out to be the result of teenagers who neglected to make sure that a fire they made was properly extinguished, this fire was followed by a series of fires intentionally set by Arab arsonists across the country.

This piece of information is not being censored by the Israeli media in the sense that it is broadcast for a second and gets a sentence or two in reports.

But what a JNF official termed “widespread arson terror” apparently doesn’t fit into the narrative that the Israeli media herd has locked into.

The narrative is:

15% grudgingly admitting that Netanyahu managed to bring in a lot of planes to put out the fire with coverage of their activity.

35% exploring when a committee of inquiry will be established that will call for Shas minister of interior Yishai’s head (with the unspoken agenda that it is hoped that removing Yishai will lead to Shas being replaced by Kadima in the coalition)

25% color stories about the fate of the people impacted by the fire damage (with absolutely no discussion of the question as to the underlying fairness that those who paid for insurance will apparently end up no better off than those who didn’t – with a clear message to the general public that they are idiots if they continue to pay for expensive earthquake insurance since if and when there is an earthquake they will be no better off than their neighbors who didn’t pay insurance all these years).

25% The funerals and follow up on people killed in the fires

The Arab arson terror is a problematic topic because it is a completely separate narrative.

It raises questions the media isn’t comfortable with about Arab-Jewish relations.

And it raises horrific questions about what we may face in terms of internal Arab caused chaos in the next war and what measures may be required to address it.

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This is Terrorism

Paula R. Stern
A Soldier's Mother
05 December '10

Elie said those words in anger last night as we watched the flames consuming our land, our precious and beautiful land. Many decades ago, a representative of Burma came to Israel. Burma is, apparently, a land covered in trees. To find place for the growing population, they have an aggressive deforestation plan, to rid the land of the trees so that people can live.

The representative of Burma came and was so impressed by our wide open spaces with no trees, that he commented on how amazingly successful our deforestation plan was. In reality, according to history, our "deforestation" plan is thousands of years old, and never really ours. When the Romans came to our land more than 2,000 years ago, destroyed the Holy Temple and took many of our people into slavery, they salted the earth, to curse it and make it barren.

There are many statistics. If I were trying to be thorough, I would do research and point to sites to prove the numbers I say here - perhaps later I will add them. For now, I'll tell you that I remember hearing that only Israel, of all the nations in the world, has MORE trees today than 50 years ago. We have no deforestation plan. It is our love of the land that drives us, year after year, to plant new forests and trees, to care for them, to cherish them.

We have lost over 5 million trees. The tragedy of this knocks us to the ground. If you are not Israeli, I do not know if you can comprehend the incredible agony of the heart that we Israelis are feeling today. We take such pride in our forests, our trees. They are an expression of our love. It causes such pain to watch them burn, hour after hour, day after day, as the flames are fanned by the winds. I could say the same and more at the thought of the 42 people who have been killed in this fire, the wounded, the homeless. More than trees, these are people and yet both the people and the land break our hearts.

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They don't only burn down forests!

Women in Green
Yibaneh Fund
29 July '10

Arabs burned down the vineyard of Natan and Yehudit Ben David, thinking that this will extinguish the Ben Davids devotion to Erets Israel.

The Ben Davids reacted fast, like in the previous times when their house was destroyed by the government and immediately got organized to rebuild and replant.



We must and will help them.

Please forward to all the short youtube movie about the arson at Ben David home. The movie is a public service by Women for Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green) and the Yibaneh Fund.

With love for Israel,

Women for Israel's tomorrow (Women in Green)- the Yibaneh Fund
for details:

Yibaneh Fund
POB 7352
Jerusalem 91072
Israel

Yehudit Katsover 050-7161818 Nadia Matar 050-5500834

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
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