Who Set the Fire and Why?: By Moshe Feiglin

28 Kislev, 5771
Dec. 5, '10

Translated from Ma'ariv's NRG website

This article is being written two hours before Shabbat. The radio is incessantly reporting on the fire raging in the Carmel Mountains. The focus of the reports is twofold: The heartwarming response of the Israeli public to the victims of the fire, with families from around the country volunteering to open their homes to those people who have lost or had to leave theirs. The second focus is on finding the guilty party or parties. Who is guilty for the fact that Israel doesn't have amphibian planes? Whose fault is it that Israel doesn't have more fire fighters? Who is to blame for their lack of basic equipment? The finger-pointing is gathering steam. Just one question is not being asked: Maybe the guilty party is he who struck the match?

There is no question that Israel must better prepare itself for fires. Perhaps G-d is giving us a "fire drill" in advance of a strategic attack. Perhaps somebody will finally remove the dangerous chemicals being stored in Haifa Bay to storage areas far from population centers. Maybe Israel will finally buy amphibian planes, capable of filling huge amounts of sea water within minutes and releasing them on the flames before they get out of control. There are certainly many technical lessons to be learned and implemented from this Chanukah tragedy. But when all is said and done, we are looking for all those responsible everywhere but where they really are. The question is not, 'Why wasn't the fire extinguished sooner?' but rather, 'Who lit it?'

This time the fire started in the illegal Asufiya garbage dump?
Perhaps.
And no proof of arson has been found for the fires that broke out simultaneously in nearby Kiryat Bialik?
True.
And no perpetrators have been found for the fires that broke out at the same time in the south, even closing down some train service there?
Also true.

Nevertheless, it was clear to me - and to all the other people who are afraid to talk about this openly - that the huge blaze in the Carmel Mountains would kindle all sorts of other fires far away from the range of its sparks. It makes no difference if it started in a garbage dump or by arson. It makes no difference because we all know that most of the fires in Israel are caused by arson. Arson perpetrated by Arabs. Not by nut-jobs, not by criminals. Arson motivated by nationalism. Arson by Arab citizens of Israel.

Everyone is busy figuring out how many tons of fire extinguisher we have to keep in storage, but they are afraid to touch upon the real reason for the fires. Please allow me to address an issue that is extremely non-politically-correct: Who is setting these fires, and why?

Arson in Israel is generally perpetrated by Israeli Arabs. Not all of them, of course. But somehow, those guilty of arson are generally from the Arab sector.

Why would they do it? After all, life is good for Arabs in Israel. There is no Arab state in which they can enjoy absolute freedom and economic well-being like in Israel. Why do they hate us so much? Why do they burn the Land that is showering them with so much good?

I do not think that they do it because they are bad people. I have gotten to know quite a few Arabs with hearts of gold. They also do not do it because of some dark primitivism. And they are not stupid.

But they have a problem with the Islamic religion and culture.

When a doctor from Kfar Saba's Meir Hospital murders his sister for "family honor," he is motivated by a very problematic cultural background.

"The Arab is not the son of the desert, but its progenitor," said the first British Commissioner of the Sinai, Sir Charles Darvis. Wherever the Arab goes, he brings the desert with him. Now he has brought the desert to the ever-green Carmel Mountains.

Why did Arab MK Azmi Basharah feel the need to guide the incoming enemy missiles into Haifa? After all, if his dream comes true and Israel is defeated, he will lose his fat salary and the other benefits that he has. Why is he cutting off the branch upon which he sits?

The answer is that questions like that are irrelevant in a culture of robbers. In Arab countries, there is no middle class. In the Middle East, either you are one of the lucky few who sit down to the feast, or you belong to the masses that are part of the menu. For this reason, there is not and there never will be democracy in the Arab states - and their economies will never flourish. Israel produces more than all its neighbors combined. That is not because we are extremely industrious. It is because true economic vitality cannot exist in a culture of robbery.

"The Jews' goal is to establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel," explained British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin to the UN, "while the goal of the Arabs is that there should not be a Jewish state in the Land of Israel." Bevin cannot be counted as a friend of Israel. But he, like Darvis thirty years before him, understood that there is no struggle taking place here between nations and cultures that desire to settle and develop the Land. Not at all. There is only one side that wants to do so - while the other side has no positive intentions. Its only goal is the elimination of the first side's goals.

Arab culture is anti-productive. It has no good and bad, only strong and weak. If you have given me something, it is a sign that you are weak; in other words, morally inferior to me - and that makes you my prey.

Currently, Israel is the main course on the Arab menu. If we want to live, we will have to wake up and deal with the Arab enemy. Sadly, we have plenty of experience.