Four papers discuss various issues regarding State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss\’ report on the December 2010 Carmel wildfire:
Haaretz states: “When the relative significance of the various levels of responsibility are considered together, it seems [Minister of the Interior Eli] Yishai bears the greatest responsibility.” The editor calls upon Yishai to resign, and asserts that if he does not do so, PM Netanyahu must take the portfolio away from him. The editor concludes: “If Netanyahu lets Yishai stay on at Interior, the word ‘responsibility’ means nothing.”
Yediot Aharonot says: "Whoever really wants to learn the lessons and take steps to change the situation, as opposed to going headhunting, can see from the report that the firefighting situation today is also catastrophic and that the same deficiency that has gone on for years is still continuing." The author suggests that "Within a few days, the report will be tossed into the great trash bin of State Comptroller\’s reports. The only place in which the report will be mentioned will be in the report on the next disaster, when the next State Comptroller asks why the conclusions of this report were not implemented. Will Netanyahu, Stenitz and Yishai be hurt by the report? Oh come on, really. When was the last time a minister here was hurt by a major screw-up?"
Ma\’ariv believes that "Yesterday, the last nail was hammered into the coffin of the value of ministerial responsibility." The author avers that "Lindenstrauss rolled the responsibility for determining the futures of Eli Yishai and Yuval Steinitz onto the Knesset and the public, and thereby sought to spark public protest and a political struggle," but adds: "None of these things will happen," given "the lack of a significant opposition," in the Knesset and "the indifference…of the many social protest movements that have sprung up in the past year." The paper asserts that "The State Comptroller bears responsibility for the fact that this important and severe report is destined to disappear from the public agenda within days. Instead of restraining himself and refraining from a steady stream of leaks about the report\’s findings and conclusions throughout recent months, he should have held his cards close to his chest and there! by strengthened the impact of the findings. The Comptroller\’s conclusions have been kown to all for some time and their publication yesterday contained little that was new." The author concludes: "There will be no taking of responsibility here, even indirectly, no dismissals and no resignations, and we will be left with the all too familiar odor of the flight from responsibility."
Yisrael Hayom notes that the vast majority of the prisoners at Damon Prison, in the rescue of whom 44 Prison Service cadets and officers and Israel Police personnel died, were Palestinians. The author, a former Prison Service officer, notes that "While their identity was not a factor vis-à-vis the need to rescue them, it is easy to imagine what the world\’s reaction would have been if Palestinian prisoners had died while under the care and responsibility of the State of Israel. The best of our people – Jews, Druze and Muslims – were involved in the rescue. To our horror, 44 paid with their lives."
The Jerusalem Post rejects the predisposition of Palestinian Authority officials, from Mahmoud Abbas down, to immediately and with willful disregard of the facts denounce any action by an Israeli as a crime, while “ascribing malevolent involvement to the Israeli government and army in the process.” Citing as an example last week’s Palestinian attack on an Israeli truck driver who was lured into an ambush near Hebron, and the truck driver\’s resistance that left two of his attackers dead, the editor states: “Without a second thought, Abbas’s knee-jerk inclination was to identify the Israeli shooter as a settler, thereby casting aspersions on all so-called settlers and giving increased legitimacy to violence against them.” The editor opines that “Anyone who genuinely desires peace must ponder hard whether unbridled, cynical incitement is at all compatible with lip-service to coexistence,” and asks: “Can a credible peace moment! um materialize from such callous manipulations of information?”
[Sima Kadmon, Mazal Muallem and Eyal Gover wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma\’ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]