guys israel must improve , its sure but yesterday the police helped by a drone caugth red handed pair of bandits , spreading the fire with bottles of firebombs they were identified they were in their thirties and came from nearby It was initially assumed that the pair was part of a larger network or gang, which had sett fires on the Carmel and later in other parts of the country as part of a deliberate campaign of sabotage. Later, the police played down the incident, claiming the two men had not been handling firebombs but combustible materials and had been released. don't fall in israel's enemies trap we must be united against the problems 1st extinguiish the fire and after put in justice the real guilties aam israel ehad hai

for the us being unprepared. They must pay for this. bibi,steinmetz,yishai or any one else should be jailed for endangering the state. We must stop giving money to all non Zionist groups. If they do not like it , then they can leave.Our lives are in danger due to the budget cuts by the min of fin, They have no money for firefighting or for a border fence in the south. But for yeshivas and other anti Zionist institutions they have plenty of funds. We should demand that there will be more firefighting planes, chemical retardants in various parts of the country and new firefighters trained and hired before the next dry summer. Whatever the experts say we need, plan for more.

Look at the history of the interior ministry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_Affairs_Minister_of_Israel Yishai has been interior Minister on-and-off for almost 10 years and is the current one. He was the Minister for the first time in 2001. So if anyone knows the condition of the fire fighting capabilities of the nation, it is him. When he accepted the post this last time around (31 March 2009), he should have made fire fighting a top priority, especially over money for yeshivas.

Israel should learn from this disaster, no wonder many call Israel as "one bomb country",and start to behave like normal nation according international rules and norms and seek to be "really" recognized among international community. For first it should "extinguish fire" against Palestine people and its neigbours. For the present way is the road to "Real disaster" ....peter czech

THIS MINISTER DONT HAVE THE FINANCIAL FUNDS TO DO ANYTHING, AND THE HIGHEST RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS LACK, IS IT NOT THE GOVERNMENT AS SUCH, AND THE PM FOREMOST, SINCE IT IS HIS GOVERNMENT. IS THE BLAME NOT FOREMOST, WITH THE ISRAELI PM ???. Arn.

so now you blame the previous government- and the one before that? How about the present one ? They have been bungling for a while- and still nothing.... In a hot country with limited water, fires are a constant threat- let's put it this way: Israel has been lucky so far- now the luck just ran out. For years we have seen devastating fires in Spain, Turkey, Greece- didn't you think it was going to be Israel's turn one of those days? Now everybody is going to be blaming everybody else- there will be commissions etc... and nothing will be done-. This government is weak, incompetent, indecisive, lots of talk and blustering- they are to blame for this tragedy- hold them accountable.

OF CAUSE THE PAST IS TO BLAME BECAUSE THE PRECENT IS A PRODUCT OF THE PAST. HOWEVER , IF THE INRERIOR MINISTER KNEW OF ALL LACKS, AND COULD NOT STAND PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THEM, HE SHOULD NOT HAVE ACCEPTED HIS OFFICE IN THE FIRST PLACE. AND NOW IF A MAN OF HONESTY UPRIGHTNESS AND INTEGRITY, HE SHOULD TAKE HIS RESPONSIBILITY AND RESIGNE. HOWEVER - IF THE PUBLIC OPINION DEMANDS A SACRIFICE IN THIS REGARD, COULD THE GOVERNMENT AND THE PM SACRIFICE AND FIRE HIM ??? - IF THERE IS ANY HONESTY AND UPRIGHTNESS AND INTEGRITY IN THE PM. HE SHOULD TAKE THE RESPONSIBILITY, SINCE THE IM IS THE SERVANT OF THE PM, AND REPRESENTS HIM IN THE IMs MINISTRY HOWEVER - AMONG EGOISTS AND COWARDS IN A HIERACIAL SYSTEM, WITH SUPERIOR AND INFERIOR RANKS, SHIT ALWAYS RUN DOWNWARDS. Arn.

Shas has controlled the ministry of Interior for nearly 25 years, with a short break with Shinui (Poraz) and then Labour controlling it...not long enough to make a difference. I know, I was persecuted as a messianic Jew by the Ministry of Interior under Shinui control but with Shas-implemented 20 year rule illegal ways and laws. The persecution I received, even though under Shinui MOI, was Shas fault...they controlled the MOI sooo long that what they implemented would take years to undo. Shas and Yishai are to blaim. Not only because they control the MOI now, but over the last thirty years they have a huge monolopy over the MOI. Its Shas fault!

Jason, Wrong, thats a historical and factual piece of disinformation. Look it up, Shas has controlled the Ministry of Interior for nearly 30 years having a monopoly. With short breaks here and there for Shinui and Labor, not enough to make a difference though....before Shas gets back in. Looking at the last thirty years, Shas is in the Ministry of Interior.

...kicking out "furiners" is.

wisdom to rule. He rose at Midnight and the fourth watch (3AM) and sought YHWH's direction. Few kings or leaders of Israel have been his equal. When there was a drought, he went to the Prophet Nathan to find out the cause of YHWH's anger. He resolved that problem and the rains returned. What is causing the drought? Rainfall could have put out the fire. What is YHWH upset about? Could it be gay parades and flaunting sodomy that is an abomination to YHWH? Could it be women with wanton eyes and fornication and adultery, too? Could it be cheating the poor? Could it be the slaughter of the unborn who belong to YHWH, not to the mother or father who are mere custodians of the children YHWH allows to be conceived that are His? It is a lot more than Minister Eli Yishai causing problems in Israel and elsewhere in the world. California has a drought, too, and is has the same problems of flaunting sodomy, women with wanton eyes, fornication, adultery, child molestation, cheating the poor, slaughter of the unborn, etc. The nation of Israel and other nations as well must address the problems that are greater than a leader and encompass many people who are hindering the whole nation.

It doesn't matter now what previous government officials failed to do during their former tenures. What matters is who is in charge now and who has now failed to fulfill their duties. We can blame ministers over the last 20 years but what really matters is Yishai's failure as current minister during this tragedy. He should be quickly dismissed, lose his portfolio, and be investigated.

Why don't you just leave now? why wait for a disaster and find you can't get out of the country because the air/sea ports are closed. Maybe just keep a bag ready in case you have to run with no prior warning. Here for the good times, are you, and ready to leave when things get a little rough?

Could you please get down off your religious high horse and stop blaming "secular" behaviour for causing this diaster. Stop quoting torah, prophets or anything else. Relligious an ultra-orthodox set themselves up to preach to the rest of us as to how we should live but they are far from the paragons of virtue they would have us believe them to be.

security of new settlements, included firefighting, is not better than in old settlements. Unfortunately, balagan is not limited, but you are completely obsessed with hysterical pseudo-political ideas It's a shame for the memory of the 41 dead men !

people look after things, they take all the money for themselves and their friends. right wing religious jews are good for staying home at our expense and reading, none of them should be allowed into politics as they actually belive a god will make any difference to anythig real. countries should be run on verifyable facts not works of fiction and fear. keep the bs for the synagogue as thats the only place it means anything. btw is olmert in jail yet?hmm didn't think so, corruption must be ok in the "eyes" of yahweh.

Peter, Israel is a democratic country surrounded by many undemocratic tyrranies. I don't think a democracy can learn from undemocratic countries. I think Czechoslovakia was a communist country in the Warsaw Pact wasn't it? And people try to teach a democracy how to behave!

All previous Ministers are to blame for the underfunding and lack of organization of the Fire Brigade. But this catastrophe occurred during Yishai's tenure of the position, so he is accountable (no word in Hebrew for "accountable") but he should accept responsibility and resign.

hey all you self hating jews...if ur looking to blame why not just blame g0d chances are He had something to do with this!!! oh wait who's g0d any ways?!

non-religious people like you. You are not subject to the laws of God. You get a free ride through life with license to sin as you like, but the judgment for you will be eternal separation from YHWH. That is your choice. Since you know my posts often give a Torah perspective on events and that upsets you, why not skip them? Why torture yourself with something you don't believe in?

The Treasury "Experts" would not release the funds to buy the fire retardant material. "It rains in November" was their expert opinion. Now, if Yishai's protestations are correct the why didn't he threaten to resign and take Shas out of the Government? We all know how Shas extorts money for the Ultra-Orthodox, for example, the money for the allowances for the Yeshiva Bochas who contribute nothing to the country! The bottom line is that the whole Government bears responsibility for this disaster and the deaths of more than 40 people, including a 16 year old boy, who put others before himself and paid the supreme price. How many Cabinet Ministers and bureaucrats would have done this? The Government must resign and Netanyahu must call a General Election now!

Are they really that important?

He has been diverting funds away from the fire service since he took office to fund Sh-ass yeshivot, Blaiming his predicessor is a pathetic exscuse and clearly demonstrates how stupid , ignorant Yishai is. Time to seperate politics and religion as he quite clearly demonstrates the concequences.

There are some people fighting on this site uniquely to promote their individuals or paid agendas. This is intellectual dishonesty!!!!! THIS IS JUST PURE UGLY journalism Does that hurt their feelings or do they have any?

Yishai has been interior minister for two years now. Successive government have not put in the investment for decades so how can he seriously be held responsible. Yes the fire service should have been given more money but how often do we have major forest fires which the fire service just cant cope with? The military want Iron Dome to deal with the constant bombardment of rickets from Gaza. Tell the residents of Sderot that the government should be giving more money to the fire service at the expense of their safety. The schools want more equipment and the teachers want better pay. Tell the parents of an Israeli child whose school is underfunded that they should cut the funding even further so more money can be given to the fire service to buy equipment that to the average individual they can manage without. When it comes to setting the annual budget no individual ministry decides who will get what and money is allocated on what the government as a whole sees as the most the areas that need funding most urgently. The fire service is one of those areas that gets neglected by government until there is a problem because the fires manage to get put out anyway when they happen so whats the big need for extra funding when there are more important areas to worry about like defense or education. Neither Yishai or any other individual serving politician can be held responsible for this all they did was carry on a policy of neglect that successive governments have adopted for decades so why single out this government or this interior minister? I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact Yishai is a haredi and as well as being interior minister he wants to make sure they yshivot get their share of the pie as well and the religious sector always make good scapegoats.

-NO AMOUNT OF ECONOMICAL FUNDS, CAN COPE WITH DELIBERATE ARSON. Arn.

Yishai is not to blame. You and I are to blame. The citizens of Israel are to blame for having a political system that allows imbeciles and analphabets like Yishai to hold Ministerial posts.

... from now on, let Eli Yishai be known as the INFERIOR MINISTER.

Fishman is right that in a normal country, the minister who bears responsibility for a disaster should resign. The South Korean defense minister resigned a few weeks ago after his country was caught unprepared by a North Korean bombardment. But who can blame Eli Yishai for not resigning? The Oslo Accords were a disaster that resulted in the murder of 1,300 innocent Israeli civilians. But Fishman and the rest of his colleagues in the Israeli media never demanded that the architect of that disaster, Shimon Peres, resign. And Peres continued in his ministerial positions until he was elevated to the presidency. What kind of example did that set?