This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/4661

Arab Arson Suspected in Deadly Fire in Israel

December 2, 2010

Fire or a Massacre? Israeli Media Downplays Arson Suspicion

Kislev 25, 5771, 02 December 10 08:00by Gil Ronen

(Israelnationalnews.com) The fire in the Carmel Mountains may turn out to be the worst terror act in Israel's history, but major news outlets appear resolute in their will to ignore this fact and its implications.

Israel's major news media, controlled by the Left, are on the whole treating the fire as a "disaster," spending most of their broadcast time discussing the insufficient preparation for a disaster of this magnitude and downplaying the fact that Arab arson is likely behind the blaze.

MK Yaakov Katz (Ketzaleh) of the National Union was the first leader Thursday to publicly give voice the possibility that the fire was a terror attack – "an act of arson that turned into a massacre," in his words. Most of the large forest fires in Israel are set by hostile Arabs, Katz said. He noted that he had proposed a bill for minimum punishment of terror arsonists nine months ago, and blamed Justice Minister Yaakov Ne'eman for torpedoing it.

Member of Knesset Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) called on Prime Minister Netanyahu Thursday evening to recruit "the entire Shin Bet" (Israel Security Agency) to investigate the Carmel Mountain fire and what he described as "the ongoing arson activity in the Galilee in general."

MK Ben-Ari said, "Fires are not decrees from above and the people of Israel must receive an answer regarding what's behind this great tragedy."

The fire spread from three locations simultaneously – making arson a likely possibility.

Deputy Minister Ayoub Kara (Likud), a resident of Usfiyeh, said on Channel 10 Thursday evening that he has received information that the fire is a terror act. He said that if the perpetrators are caught they should be executed "like [the Nazi criminal Adolf] Eichmann" who is the only person put to death by Israel to date.

Arab citizens of Israel use arson as a simple means of inflicting terror and destruction upon the Jewish state. Large scale fires recently consumed 5,000 acres in the Golan Heights.

The numerous large fires that broke out or were set this year depleted Israel's reserves of fire-fighting chemicals, and the supply of chemicals is expected to be used up completely by Friday morning. Israeli planes are reported to be en route to France to bring more supplies of fire-dousing materials.

According to an unconfirmed report on rotter.net, Radio Haifa reported that Arabs have been dancing in the streets of Furadis, just south of Haifa, in celebration of the deadly fire.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/140974

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Press Low-Key on Wave of Arson by Israel's Arabs

12/5/10
by Gil Ronen

Israelnationalnews.com) Police and volunteers are manning checkpoints, lookouts and ambushes throughout Israel in an effort to combat a wave of terrorist arson by Arab citizens of Israel. While occasionally reporting some of the arson incidents, most news sources are playing them down considerably, while others cover them up completely.

The IDF has released video footage shot from an IAF aircraft, which shows a vehicle escaping from the scene of an arson attack on the Carmel Mountain. The conversation on the radio, in Hebrew, is between pilots and police. The pilots report that they have received word from a firefighting aircraft that spotted the vehicle leaving the scene of an act of arson, near a spot called the Muhraka. The aircraft follows the vehicle – a Renault Kangoo – until it is stopped by police cars.

Despite this video, news of the wave of arson is seeping into the public consciousness mostly through smaller news sources and by word of mouth.

Police said the main conflagration in the Carmel Mountains was unintentionally caused by a group of youth from Ossafiya. According to a report on Channel 2 news, the youths lit a fire as part of a nocturnal picnic and did not put it out properly before leaving the site. Later reports said that while most of the residents of Ossafiya are Druze, the youths who were arrested are Arabs.

News1 said that insurance companies were heartened by this news, because if they can prove in court that the fire was an act of terrorism, the state will pay the victims' compensation instead of them.

However, Channel 2's website also carries a report that Border Police arrested two Arabs, one an Israeli citizen and the other from the Palestinian Authority, who tried to start a fire near Jerusalem on Saturday night. The two were caught in a ravine near the "tunnels checkpoint" at the entrance to the neighborhood of Gilo.

Citizens who passed through the checkpoint noticed the suspects and reported their activity to security forces. A Border Police team identified the two trying to set a fire, called on them to stop and fired four shots in the air. The suspects tried to escape in a vehicle but were arrested after a short chase.

A short time later, a 34-year-old Arab man was arrested near Dodge Junction close to Nazareth. He was taken to interrogation.

The volunteer "New HaShomer" land security group also placed ambushes in key locations. On Friday it reported several arrests, via text messages that it sent to its volunteer guards.

The News1 website reported that Radio Haifa interviewed several people who witnessed car horn-honking and other acts of public celebration in the Arab village of Furadis, south of Haifa, after news of the tragedy became known Thursday.

According to the report, Arab citizens uploaded to a Facebook account gruesome photographs of charred bodies of victims. Other Arabs expressed their feelings by clicking "like." The police are said to be investigating the matter and the Facebook page is said to have been closed.

However, the pictures have already begun making the rounds worldwide. A group called "Mujahedeen of Palestine," identified with Al-Qaeda, put the pictures of the bodies on a YouTube video. The video includes text that says "Muhammad's lions" came out at night to set alight the land of the "occupiers."

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/140993

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This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/4661