As with many other existing shortcomings in our fallafel republic Democracy, these planes will take years to come if ever. One would think that the botched 2nd Lebanon war with over 4000 incoming missiles setting the north on fire and with the Weinograd commission report pointing out many disfunctional systems, something would have been done. But no only self interest and incompetance rules this nation. Just imangine when more missiles are fired in the next round, how well prepared we really are. While the media gives our political hacks exposure to show their so-called concern and compassion, it is once again the citizens who pay with their lifes and goods. Even with An IAI in our backyard building these planes, the authorities as usual were caught with their pants down showing their inaptness. For us time will move on, but for the Families losing their loved ones the scars will tke years to heal.

Unfortunately we have more regular use of other costly planes, and BH not much use for fire fighting planes. This has been a particularly bad year and a very unusually bad fire. For this we can rather work on being good neighbored and using their resources when needed. I suggest an "insurance" agreement with them. We pay an annual fee and their planes are available to us when we need them. But on the other hand, now the terrorists have seen how to hurt us, maybe PG not, we will be needing these plains more.

I live in Southern California and we know about wildfires. Until not too many years ago we depended on Canadas planes. In the States we still depend upon each other during these exceptional times of destruction. And Canada still helps us out when we need them.

Wake up dear Rebecca. The day will come when Hezbollah will attack Israel & we will need these planes to extinguish the fires started by their rockets. We need these planes here in Israel so GF when fires break out we wont have to wait for them to reach Israel.

in fire fighting planes rather than fire-making planes. My heartfelt condolences for the loss of life, this event show that even adversaries will come to help in such situation. Qudos to all who helped, especially Turkey, Jordan and the Palestine Authority

If the israeli air force is able to drop with high precision bombs of 1000 KGS of explosives, it is obvious that it can also drop " bombs " filled with retardant chemicals. It means that the israel Air Force can fly 2000 sorties a day and deliver 2000 tons of anti flame material. Tsahal could also use ii the same way it's artillery. No one needs new planes.

Back when I think it was still Canadair, the company brought the CL-215 or CL-415 to Israel for a demonstration. The Israelis decided against it. The IDF also took the C-130 Hercules off of fire-fighting duties (theres a fire-fighting package called MAFFS for the C-130). Israel decided to use crop duster airplanes instead. Why? Probably because the guy with the company had a contract and good connections in the government.

I've fought many fires here in the Golan under the crop dusters mentioned; they do a great job on grassland fires and those boys can REALLY fly. In Canada I fought fires under planes and helicopters because of thick forest; with all of that knowledge we still had fires that burnt for months in the 2003 fire season. Kudos to the fly boys, but a medium size plane flying a higher number of sorties would be more useful than a super tanker sitting on a runway being refilled for precious hours.

My condolences to all those affected by these horrific fires. Just a point of order -- "air tankers" as they are properly called ARE NOT used to drop water on fires. That would have little effect. Planes are used to drop fire retardant on and around structures to prevent ignition as the fire approaches, and to "paint" lines of retardant *around* the fire to slow it down so that firefighters on the ground can extinguish it.

should order the planes this week at the latest. If the fire was around the knesset, these incompetents would order a squadron in a couple of hours. Order the damn planes now! Hire and train new fire fighters now! Order hundreds of tons of chemical retardents now and place them all over the country. Make sure those in charge of the fire service know where the chemicals are stored. We have billions of dollars sitting in the bank of Israel. Spend some on us Jews and not the hara-dim!