Today’s Top Stories
1. Wildfires continued to spread around Israel as flames threatened homes and national infrastructure. Some 60,000 people were forced to evacuate in Haifa alone.
The Jerusalem Post, i24 News and Haaretz report new fires broke out in the areas of Modiin, Nazareth, the Hebron Hills, and Rishon LeTzion (suspiciously across from a police station), and other locations.
The Times of Israel sums up the scope:
In all there have been some 220 fires throughout the country in the past two days, beginning with a blaze near Neve Shalom outside Jerusalem that forced the community to evacuate in the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday.
Early assessments from police and fire officials is that 80 percent of the fires were caused by arson, with the rest resulting from negiligence. Israeli media reported that Haifa’s fires began in five different spots simultaneously.
Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, Russia, Italy and Turkey sent firefighting equipment at Israel’s request. More on the story below.
Haifa, inner city. Photo by Alex Wasserman #IsraelOnFire pic.twitter.com/h9l8MsBBMc
— Tal Schneider טל שניידר تال شنايدر (@talschneider) November 24, 2016
2. Jordan’s King Abdullah to Australian media: We can’t defeat Islamic State “without the help of Christians and Jews and other religions . . .”
3. While a World Bank report suggests Gaza could run out of usable drinking water by 2020, the Palestinians are politicizing the problem rather than work with Israel to find solutions for the Strip. The Media Line explains . . .
Most Palestinians in Gaza, he said, do not trust the water quality from their taps and so buy water from tankers, a solution that is expensive and has its own health risks . . .
Part of the problem is political. Under the 1993 Oslo accords, Israel agreed to supply a certain quantity of water to Gaza.
But the population in Gaza has grown significantly, and the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Committee has not met in years. Israeli officials say the Palestinians are not interested in meeting, while Palestinian officials say they will not approve more water for Jewish communities inside the West Bank, which already receive large allocations.
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Israel and the Palestinians
• Politically motivated arson? Is Haaretz suggesting that Naftali Bennett, Isaac Herzog or Yair Lapid are playing with matches?
I don’t believe journalist Michelle Chabin was specifically responding to that headline, but draw your own conclusions.
Israelis are calling this huge spate of fires arson terrorism and the fire intifada. Israel has a mighty army but few fire-fighters.
— Michele Chabin (@MicheleChabin1) November 24, 2016
• YNet reports that “Israel is burning” quickly became a trending hashtag on rejoicing Arab social media. Mark Halawa called out one popular Arab singer for an especially disgusting tweet.
Breaking ?
Prominent #UAE singer @AhlamAlShamsi celebrating Israel fires & calling upon Allah to increase the fires & burn Jewish babies ?? pic.twitter.com/IkVIDMAnp3— Mark Halawa – مارك حلاوه (@HalawaMark) November 24, 2016
• IDF Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai went on Facebook to answer live questions from Palestinians. How did it go?
• Reuters previews what’s in store at the upcoming Fatah party congress. It’s believed that a successor for Mahmoud Abbas will be chosen at next week’s party powwow.
• Israelis and Palestinians are scrambling to learn more about Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, after the President-elect mentioned his name for an undefined role in Mideast peace efforts. The New York Times looks at what’s known about Kushner’s ties to Israel.
• In France, a fundraiser for pets ended up unleashing rabid anti-Semitism.
Commentary/Analysis
But being a firefighter, more than anything, is knowing that people’s lives depend only on you, that there is no one else who will do the job.
My firefighter friends have spent the last three days at a wide range of fires and other incidents. We fought to save lives. We fought to save property, and we are still fighting to save the nature and beauty of the land of Israel. For three days in a row, with almost no rest, we have been going from fire to fire, answering every call, even when we are tired, even when we have already finished our shifts, even when it seems near impossible to stop the fire due to strong winds. We do not give up. And despite the force and the danger of the fire, we win battle after battle, because we know that our loss would mean lives cut short and property burned.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Herb Keinon: Unwittingly pushing anti-settlement moves at UN
– Nadav Eyal: As US Jews suffer, silence falls on Jerusalem
– Miriam Elman: Anti-Israel boycott prevents peace, assaults Jewish identity
– Gregg Roman: The myth of Israel’s demographic doomsday
– Asaf Romirowsky and Alexander Joffe: The UN’s Palestinian refugee industry
– Efraim Inbar: Australia and Israel: Good guys should stick together
– Ira Rifkin: Getting upset while doing errands and listening to NPR stories about Israel
Featured Image: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90;
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