Hanukkah Firestorm in North Israel

The forest fires raging in northern Israel bear mentioning, especially during Hanukkah. (Hang in there, Haifa.) As for cause, probably an act of God — lightning or the usual careless cigarette, whipped up by the easterly "hamsin" (or more Biblically, sharav) winds common in Israel, perhaps aggravated by El Niño or global warming. The hamsin winds are a kind of Foehn wind like those off the Alps or the famous hot westerlies of Japan. In this country, they're chinook winds, or the Santa Ana winds of Los Angeles, or anything outen the moufs of hot air windbags like Palin, Beck or Limbaugh. Doesn't appear to be arson — whether by Hamas, Hizbollah, Al Qaeda or bored kibbutzim — but the predictable eyebrows have already been raised, triangulating analysts have downgraded "forest" to "brush" in recent PR, and the blaze has already been extinguished, no doubt negotiated to death.

We had two inches of snow this morning. Spice of life.