The Israel Situation » Haifa

Israel’s Greatest Tragedy

Anthony Reich — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 14:49:09 +0000

Israel is fighting probably her greatest single disaster in her 62 year history. A fire continues to rage in the Carmel Forest on the outskirts of Haifa. The fire has destroyed thousands of acres of forestlands, has burnt down numerous homes including the devastation of an entire kibbutz, and has tragically claimed the lives of 41 people. Not only is this Israel’s worst fire ever, it is also the largest loss of life in a single incident in Israel’s history including natural disasters and terror attacks.

Is comes as something of a surprise that a country like Israel, which has been forced to fight numerous wars and stave off waves of terror attacks designed to threaten her very existence, ultimately finds that a fire results in greater loss of life. This has perhaps been caused by the fact that the winter rains, due already some time ago, have simply not materialised. The country has seen two short rain showers in the last nine months. It would be a gross understatement to say that the countryside is like a tinderbox. A small spark would be all that is needed to set the whole country alight.

The irony is that most of the lives were lost in an act of trying to save those who have been working to destroy Israel. The incident took place when the flames began to approach near to the Damon prison in the Carmel Forest which housed some 500 Palestinian security prisoners. The prison service mobilised all its forces to evacuate the prison in order to save those housed in the prison from the fire. Amongst those called to help was a group of cadets in training to be prison officers. They were put on a bus and immediately transported to the prison in the fire zone. The bus was held up along the road as a result of access restrictions caused by the fire. The driver was instructed to turn the bus around on a narrow road, at which point the fire caught up with the bus and engulfed it and its passengers. This single tragedy cost 36 lives of those endangering themselves to save the lives of those who wish to see us destroyed.

In the case of a disaster like this, it sometimes helps to draw strength from any positive aspects that may arise from the situation. We are fortunate in that there are a number of positives that serve to lighten the heavy burden borne by this tragedy. The first positive aspect is the response by outside countries to the call sent out for help. Prime Minister Netanyahu succeeded in overcoming a classic Israeli character weakness when he acknowledged that Israel cannot go this one on her own, and put out a call for international help. The response has been astonishing with many nations sending manpower or equipment to help in the efforts. These countries include Russia, Cyprus, Greece, the UK, the USA, Azerbaijan, Italy, Bulgaria, Croatia, France and Spain. More surprisingly in view of regional politics is the help that has been provided by Jordan, Egypt, Turkey and even the Palestinian Authority. It is true that Israel has always been first to offer assistance to other countries in the wake of national disasters, even those who refuse to recognise Israel’s place amongst the nations of the world. This has shown itself to be reciprocal in Israel’s hour of need. We have much to be grateful to these countries for. It is clear that things would have been a great deal worse without their help.

The second positive aspect coming out of this natural disaster is the leadership shown by the prime minister and members of his government. In addition to reaching out to outside countries for help, Netanyahu has shown himself publicly to be in charge. He has held numerous TV news conferences to brief the country on the latest developments. He has shown himself to be fully up to date with all aspects of the fire, and has visited the fire scene daily to acquaint himself with facts on the ground. Today, the government’s weekly cabinet meeting will be held in the Carmel Forest area in a show of unity with those who are threatened and have lost their homes. Netanyahu seems to have learned the lessons of the lack of leadership shown by President George W. Bush during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. He has certainly not repeated that mistake.

The third positive point is the extent to which the Israeli public has pulled together to help and support those in the fire zone. Homes and community centres have been opened up and down the country to provide assistance to the 17,000 people who have been evacuated from their homes. Some of these people have lost all of their possessions as the fire swept through everything that they owned. Collections are taking place to provide the basic necessities to get these people through the next few days until they can get back onto their feet. It is true that the process of rebuilding will take more than simply a few days. It is, however, pleasing to see the willingness of others to help during their darkest days.

The long lines of traffic heading up to the fire zone are not only curious onlookers wishing to see first-hand the results of the fire’s devastation. Many of these people are volunteers wishing to provide help and relief to the weary fire-fighters. Such is the indomitable spirit of people in this country that teenagers and young adults are lining up to go into personal battle against the fire. The fact that they are putting themselves into harm’s way seems not to be a consideration. For them, it is more important that they offer their help rather than be concerned about their personal security. This was the spirit of Elad Riven z”l, a 16 year-old boy killed in the line of duty. Elad had been volunteering with his local fire department in Haifa as part of his high school personal obligation. All Israeli high school students are expected to undertake some voluntary work as part of their personal obligation to Israeli society. Elad could not see his colleagues from his local fire station deployed on the front lines without going to truly fulfil his personal commitment. It was here that his young life was taken alongside his senior fire-fighting colleagues.

Today, Israel will bury tens of its finest and bravest. This time not killed in the line of defending the country against the threat of war or terror attack, but killed in a fight against a natural disaster. The circumstances are different, but the spirit is the same. This is the spirit that says that nothing will be allowed to overcome the will to survive in our homeland.

Our condolences and heartfelt sympathy goes out to the families of those who have perished in this disaster. Yehi zichram baruch – may their memories be blessed.

Israel’s Greatest Tragedy is a post from: The Israel Situation

Israeli Police Defuse Bomb in Haifa

Eric — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:56:00 +0000

Israeli police located and defused a car bomb parked near a busy shopping center in Haifa. The car, located near the Lev HaMifratz shopping center, contained an estimated 100 pounds of explosives.

The shopping center was struck by a scud missile during the first Gulf War in the 1990s. A main charge partially detonated leaving many smaller explosives latent inside the private car. A police robot was used to disarm the remnants of the bomb.

Police are looking for the person who left the car. A police lieutenant made it clear that the vehicle was parked outside of the mall’s parking garage. Any car going into the mall would have been searched. An outside bomb would have caused minimal damage.

B”H, no one was injured.

Image from YNet.

Israeli Police Defuse Bomb in Haifa is a post from: The Israel Situation

City Focus Israel: Haifa

Eric — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:17:00 +0000

Haifa is the third largest city in Israel, and sits on the Mediterranean coast in Northern Israel. It is known for a busy port, a beautiful Baha’i garden, a beach, and a nice climate.

The metropolitan area of Haifa is home to 1.03 million residents, a mix of Jewish and Arab citizens. Haifa is often noted as a city of peace, showing a co-existence between the 90% Jewish and 10% Arab population. The city was unscathed by the first years of the intifada, and was hoped to be unaffected by terror attacks. Haifa is also home to a sizable (14%) Christian population, made of up a mix of Arab Christians and immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

Haifa was the largest city within rocket range during the 2006 Lebanon War. 93 rockets fell in the municipality during the war.

The region, centering around Haifa, is known for technology development. Motorola, Intel, Fuji, and many more large tech companies have research and development facilities in Haifa. Haifa is also home to the Technion, a university said to be the M.I.T of Israel.

The Bahai world center is located in Haifa, and the large Bahai gardens is considered to be the holiest Bahai site in the world. The large building at the bottom of the Garden is the burial site of the religion’s founder.

The city is thought to be founded in the 14th century BCE.

Haifa is a bustling cultural center and economic center for the region and all of Israel.

This post is part of a series, City Focus Israel, about major cities in Israel. This is the 3rd to last post in the series. Make sure you don’t miss the last two, subscribe today. Click here to see all City Focus Israel posts.

City Focus Israel: Haifa is a post from: The Israel Situation

Israeli Soldiers Laid To Rest

Eric — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:11:00 +0000

The Jewish and Israeli people now have some closure after the prisoner swap with Lebanon. Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Ragev have been laid to rest in Nahariya and Haifa, respectively. These funerals close a dark chapter in Israeli military history. Say a brucha for the soldiers and their families. Israeli Soldiers Laid To Rest is [...]

Israeli Soldiers Laid To Rest is a post from: The Israel Situation

Yahoo Opens Israeli Research Facility

Eric — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:30:00 +0000

Yahoo’s Israeli facility in Haifa is up and running. This is great to see. The Haifa economy took a hit in 2006 during the war with Lebanon, and this is evidence that the world is not worried about Hezbollah and Lebanon.

From Information Week:

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) on Tuesday opened a lab in Israel that will focus on improving search technology.
Ronny Lempel, an expert in information organization and retrieval, will head the Haifa lab, Yahoo said. Lempel will report directly to Ricardo Baeza-Yates, VP of Yahoo research.

Lempel will work with other scientists in developing a “new approach to Web search,” Prabhakar Raghavan, head of Yahoo research, said in a statement. “His expertise in search technologies and ties to local academia will help us draw on the best talent and knowledge from across the region and strengthen our worldwide R&D efforts.”

Before joining Yahoo, Lempel worked at the Information Retrieval Group at IBM’s Haifa Research Lab, focusing on research and development for enterprise search systems. Lempel received his Ph.D. in computer science at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

“Israel is fertile ground for incredibly talented technologists, researchers and engineers, and the Yahoo Research Israel Lab provides the best opportunity to create the technologies that will underpin the next generation of search on the Internet,” Lempel said.

The latest lab is the second opening this month. Yahoo last week launched a Bangalore, India, lab headed by Rajeev Rastogi, the founding director of Bell Labs India.

Yahoo remains a distant second in online search to Google. In January, Google accounted for 58.5% of U.S. Web searches, while Yahoo had 22.2%, according to ComScore. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) was third with 9.8%. Americans conducted 10.5 billion searches on the Web in January.

Yahoo’s failure to capture a bigger share of the multi-billion-dollar ad market associated with online search contributed to a drop in stock price that led to a pending takeover bid by Microsoft.

Yahoo Opens Israeli Research Facility is a post from: The Israel Situation