Fear and Loathing in Israel, 2010

Fear and Loathing in Israel, 2010
by Ami Kaufman
Posted: December 21, 2010 05:08 AM
Huffington Post

I can't get away from it. Every place I go, everything I read, everything I watch -- it's always there. The racism is always there. Towards Arabs, towards foreign workers, towards Morroccans, Russians, Ashkenazim, Mizrahim.

This isn't the place I grew up in. Where is that place? Where did it go? Racism has always existed in Israel, but something about the ease in its surfacing, something about how violent it is is different. It's all out in the open, and nobody cares anymore.

I'm actually really, really scared.

Evangelicals to the Rescue

U.S. Jews and Evangelicals Help Israel Rebuild After Fires
First Posted: 12-13-10 09:00 PM
Updated: 12-13-10 09:00 PM

Michele Chabin
Religion News Service
Huffington Post

JERUSALEM (RNS) American Jews and evangelical Christians are taking a central role in rebuilding the Carmel region in northern Israel after a deadly fire decimated large swaths of the Carmel forest and left many people homeless.

Several Jewish and evangelical Christian organizations have launched fund-raising drives to assist the region after a massive wildfire in early December killed 43 people in one of Israel's few green belts. It took a team of international fire fighters to put out the blaze.

The fire highlighted the woeful state of Israel's fire service, which employs fewer than 1,500 fire fighters in a nation of 7 million people. There is a severe shortage of fire trucks and the under-funded service does not own a single fire-fighting plane.