By Prof. Avishai Ehrlich *

 I am in Tel Aviv – 70 Km. away from the fires, I do not even see the smoke cloud that is above the Haifa area as it is moving into the sea and may reach Cyprus before it comes to me. The pictures on my plasma TV are, however, very saddening. You see tens of thousands evacuated from homes and the most beautiful eco-system in Israel, the Carmel mountain forests, destroyed for at least 50-60 years. It is also tragic that more than 40 police cadets, rushed to help, have found their death when their bus was caught in the fires. What is amazing is that for a country expecting wars and missile attacks (which also can cause big fires) at any time, the governments of Israel have, for many years, neglected, despite state controller repeated warnings, the fire forces and kept them understaffed and under-equipped. The lack of proper fire command is only a result of low priority in budget allocation! It is consequence of stingy neo-liberal governments decision (amazing in a 'permanent war society'!) not to have a National Fire Fighting Authority properly financed and maintained by central government. To let fire services be financed entirely by local authorities, most of them are too poor to be able to maintain a proper fire service out of local taxes. There is a demand here now for a public enquiry committee, only that in Israel we have plenty of inquiry committees, the one about the Mavi Marmara flotilla massacre has not finished its deliberations yet! It is common knowledge that Inquiry Committees are a ploy to let off steam, assuage public rage, let anger subside over time. They usually hold responsible scapegoats, simple people. The chief culprits: ministries and the PM, never pay with their heads. It is less important to find, after the fire has happened already, what went wrong in this particular case, we already know that it is a result of long term negligence. It is most important now, when the issue is still hot, to demand that it does not happen again! The government must not prevaricate; it must be pressed to commit itself to establish now, not in unspecified future, a National Fire Authority properly financed by the state. I remember reading that when the fires danced around Athens the Greeks too complained that fire brigades were under-equipped. Now the Greeks have improved somewhat and can come to our rescue. May be in few years time, as a result of this fire, we will be able to reciprocate in a third country! What is impressive though, is that help came promptly from Turkey, Jordan and Egypt. Even the Palestinians sent a token two fire engines in solidarity. Cyprus, Greece, Russia, Italy, France and the US and others also helped, of cause, but they are friendly countries. P.M. Benjamin Netanyahu spends a lot of time speaking on TV, so that we can watch him, thanking leaders of the helping countries, he even thanked Erdogan! For him it is an occasion to demonstrate, to us, that hi anti-peace policies, bitterly criticized abroad, policies turning Israel almost a pariah, have not caused isolation of Israel, that Israel still has many friends in time of need. To us Israelis it should show that even bitter political adversaries distinguish between government policies and solidarity towards the suffering of other people. Politically, the most worrying aspect about this fire is the accusation by the police that the fires were caused deliberately by arsonists. The finger is pointed at Palestinians citizens of Israel. This comes in the midst of ethnic, anti Arab laws moved by the most right wing coalition government Israel has had for many years. A survey, published just this week, by the "Democracy Institute" has shown a majority of Israelis supporting ethnic cleansing of Arabs in Israel. Also, that in case of war Jewish majority supports incarcerating Israeli Arabs in detention camps, as the Americans treated their Japanese citizens during WW2. A vast majority of Israelis do not think that Arab citizens should participate in major decisions, such as th conditions of peace. (For more on this see this link to Ha'aretz daily: http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/survey-israel-yet-to-grasp-concept-of-democracy-1.9976) The Carmel area is inhabited by Jews and Arabs alike, Arab villages have been damaged as well! These unproven allegations are themselves petrol bombs lobbed by political arsonists into an already inflammatory situation between Arabs and Jews in Israel. The right in Israel is playing with fire!

* Professor Avishai Ehrlich is a sociologist and a member of Hadash – The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality – Communist Party of Israel.