Three papers comment on State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss’s report on the Fire and Rescue Service, which he issued yesterday:
Yediot Aharonot predicts that "This report will be buried deep in a drawer," for "a simple reason: The failure that screams to high Heaven from the report originates in too many people who are important both to the Prime Minister and for maintaining the current coalition." However, the author ventures that "Perhaps a small Chanukah miracle will take place and Netanyahu will convene the Cabinet today and pass a decision establishing a National Fire Authority." The paper calls – inter alia – for the replacement of unqualified – but politically connected – fire station commanders, the purchase of modern equipment and the establishment of a world-class fire service school. But the author says, "There is no chance that any of this will happen. The bureaucrats, who abhor any change, will never allow this revolution. Why should mayors give up on budgets that they receive for fire stations in their areas? Why should the Interior Ministry give up on money and power? Why should the firefighters’ workers committee agree to changes in their work conditions? At least the State Comptroller tried."
Ma’ariv asks: "Do we need to establish a State Commission of Inquiry? That is not certain. What is certain is that we need to establish a fire and rescue service quickly. It is difficult to see that Netanyahu…is the man who is threatening to bomb Iran in the coming months. What exactly was he thinking when he put the country against this concrete danger, of thousands of missiles being fired against inflammable targets, without a fire service?"
Yisrael Hayom notes that the report criticized Interior Minister Eli Yishai more than any other minister, but says that "Nothing will happen to him; he will stay where he is. No commission of inquiry and public criticism will cause him to take the main responsibility and request another portfolio…He has too many votes behind him." The author recommends that Israel’s ministers "take an interest in their ministries, and not just in the context of their political parties."
The Jerusalem Post discusses the recognition of a Palestinian state by several Latin American countries, and notes that "A collective state of misjudgment has swept across Latin America." The editor declares that "by recognizing a Palestinian state at this stage, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay are undermining the very process they claim to wish to advance – the promotion of Israeli-Palestinian peace via direct negotiation," and adds: "By conferring recognition on a ‘Palestine’ whose leadership has hitherto resisted the compromises that the negotiating process requires, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay merely risk intensifying the Palestinians’ counter- productive intransigence."
Haaretz deplores what it terms "Racism at the expense of Israeli citizens," an issue which came to light in a halakhic ruling signed by dozens of city rabbis prohibiting the leasing of privately held apartments to Arabs. The editor calls on the government to take harsh measures against the inciters, and adds that "Religious Services Minister Yaakov Margi must now bring disciplinary measures against the instigating rabbis as the first step in their dismissal."
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