The fires in Israel have made the headlines in the past few days - and thankfully it looks like the worst is over now.
It has been interesting reading and watching the coverage of this event - which has affected Jewish and Arab Israelis both, and had a number of political twists and turns.
Firstly, the Israeli government hasn't covered itself with glory, and some refer to this as Netanyahu's katrina - and a number have commented that perhaps fire fighting planes may be a better investment than fighter planes.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/op ... a-1.328888
There's also the scapegoating going on and the debate over who is to blame.
We have two teenage Israelis accused of arson - who happen to be from the Druze community (i.e. Arab Israeli, but from an offshoot of the Muslim community some of whose members support Israel).
The majority of commentators blame the authorities for lack of preparedness and also for mishandling the situation when it arose.
But we also have the spiritual leader of the Shas party, Rabbi Ovaida Yusef saying that this was a Divine punishment because those in the area weren't observant enough of the Sabbath. Indeed, the Israeli interior minister defended the Rabbi for preaching this:
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Artic ... ?id=198052
Hamas' Ismael Hanniyyah agrees with the Rabbi that it is a Divine punishment - but his take on it is that God's punishment is for past attacks on Gaza.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/ga ... t-1.329003
Cheers,
Shafique