Massive fires on the eve of Independence Day can be attributed to a cruel divine reflection of the current state of the nation: burning. Nearly 2,000 hectares (almost 5,000 acres) of land were charred, as firefighters fought bravely to contain the fire, and drivers on the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem Highway abandoned their cars in the blazing heat and walked to safety.
Every year, Israelis experience the effects of climate change more and more, as the weather gets more extreme, and not all disasters can be fought off. But we can be prepared.
Government decisions made in the last two years prevented that preparation, demonstrating yet another example of the governing coalition’s disconnect and inefficiency. Civilians end up paying the heaviest of prices.
It should serve as a rallying cry to our leaders to buckle in and prepare for the next fire, both physical and metaphorical, and to start healing the ever-widening schisms in Israeli society.
Furthermore, this isn’t Israel’s first fire. Fifteen years ago, a massive forest fire broke out on Mount Carmel. Forty-four people died, about 17,000 were evacuated, and nearly 2,500 hectares of land were burned, including millions of trees. It took five days to contain the fires.
This was the largest natural fire that took place in Israel up until that point, and it was the worst civilian disaster until the Mount Meron crowd crush in April 2021 that claimed the lives of 45 people.
Israeli leadership’s unwillingness to learn
The government was asked to form a state commission of inquiry for the Carmel fires to learn from mistakes and be better prepared for the future.
Such a commission was never formed, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposed the initiative. In 2012, the State Comptroller’s Office published a series of recommendations.
Already before the Carmel fires, the Fire and Rescue Authority had complained several times in the 2000s about a shortage of supplies and manpower. Some legislation was passed in the following years to settle disputes over the ministerial parent of the Fire and Rescue Authority, streamlining some of the bureaucratic blockages.
The fires this week are even more infuriating, because in December 2022, former Internal Security Ministry director-general Tomer Lotan begged, in a special Knesset committee, to purchase four aerial firefighting Black Hawk jets for use against fires. He warned that they weren’t a luxury but a necessity, and that it could not wait. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who was fresh in the role, disputed this, claiming it was a waste of money.
Lotan wrote on Twitter/X on Wednesday: “I am seeing photos of the fires, and my blood is boiling!” The purchase plan was the result of a long, professional process of coordination among several governmental bodies, which was eventually approved by the Bennett-Lapid government, and it came after a widespread government decision to approach firefighting more seriously, he wrote.
Ben-Gvir spun a lie that the jets would be used by the police, and he used it to fodder his claim of fund wastefulness, Lotan wrote, adding: “This was so crazy and stupid, because the purchase was for the Fire and Rescue Authority, not for the police!”
During the committee meeting, Lotan wrote, he tried hard to explain that these jets would upgrade Israel’s aerial power. “It was like talking to the wall,” he wrote.
“These lies stunted the purchase and prevented us from being much more prepared today, two and a half years later, for these massive fires,” he added.
During budgetary debates a few months ago, NIS 217 million was cut from firefighting services and went instead to haredi (ultra-Orthodox) yeshivot and food stamps for the community, as well as for haredi education and to settlements, along with NIS 87m. to “strengthening Jewish identity.” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich signed off on all of this.
Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak, a member of the Knesset’s Finance Committee, summarized it well when he said on Thursday: “What happened to the budget of the Fire and Rescue Authority tells you everything you need to know about yesterday’s fires. The 2025 budget was approved with cuts, while increased funds were dedicated to political and sectoral goals. The Authority’s budget dropped from 2024 to 2025; this government is risking the lives of its citizens for its own survival.”
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