By Gabriel Weinstein After last week’s forest fire, the Carmel region in Northern Israel’s once emerald forests and fields have become a barren prairie of charred branches, ash heaps and dismembered buildings. The Israeli government estimates it will cost around 2 billion shekels (about $553 million) to repair damage from the fire that claimed 42 lives and destroying almost 50,000 dunams (12,355 acres). The Carmel fire is poised to join Hurricane Katrina in the pantheon of mishandled natural disasters. Although Katrina provided innumerable lessons for governments on how not to mitigate the damage caused by natural disasters, the Israeli government apparently did not pay attention. As the Israeli government forges ahead with the Carmel fire recovery it is repeating the same mistakes that plagued the U.S. government’s Katrina relief effort. The wake of the Carmel fire has thrust a...

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