Ministers burnt in fire inquiry
FOUR government ministers have been blamed by the state comptroller for the disastrous results of the four-day Carmel Forest fire of December 2010, which claimed 44 lives.
Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss assigned “special responsibility” to Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz and Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai for poorly maintaining Israel’s firefighting infrastructure, meaning that the response to the fire was substandard. He took them to task for fighting among themselves about where money to develop firefighting capability should come from, and in the end not developing these capabilities.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Internal Security Yitzhak Aharonovitch bear “general responsibility”, as they failed to use their influence to ensure that capabilities were developed.
Lindenstrauss’ report said that “for too long, the Prime Minister refrained from bringing the full weight of his authority to bear on resolving this dispute, a delay that had serious consequences for the state of readiness of the firefighting force.”
Despite his criticism of the infrastructure, Lindenstrauss stressed that he was not blaming any single person for the deaths, and that emergency forces acted “courageously, resolutely and had been ready to lay their lives on the line”.
Nevertheless, many Israelis feel that the criticism merits resignations. Haaretz argued in its editorial that if Yishai stays in his job “the word ‘responsibility’ means nothing.” And a poll by Channel 10 found that 41 per cent think that Yishai should quit, and 45 per cent said the same of Steinitz.
These two ministers have tried hard to fend off criticism. Steinitz’s office branded the report “extremely unfounded and outright preposterous”. Yishai preempted the report by releasing a video claiming that he has shown dedication to firefighting infrastructure.
Netanyahu’s office, by contrast, released a humble statement saying, “Some of the deficiencies indicated by the comptroller were corrected immediately after the Carmel disaster,” and Netanyahu “will continue to work to correct the deficiencies”.
NATHAN JEFFAY
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