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Edition: U.S. Article Comments (0) Email Print Reprints Full Focus Editor's choice A selection of our best photos from the past 24 hours. Full Article Best pictures of the year Read WikiLeaks moves site to Switzerland amid U.S. fury 10:51am EST South Korea raises rhetoric against the North 8:54am EST Payrolls barely rise, jobless rate jumps 10:06am EST Top U.S. military officer presses China over North Korea 01 Dec 2010 Clinton says Iran, North Korea could spark arms races 7:35am EST Discussed 81 Saudi king urged U.S. to attack Iran: WikiLeaks 65 Obama to propose two-year federal worker pay freeze 64 Obama, Republicans in tax face-off at White House Watched Bejeweled bra exposed in NY Thu, Oct 21 2010 Row over vote orgasm video Fri, Nov 19 2010 Aerodynamics of flying snakes Thu, Dec 2 2010 Formidable Israel lacks fire-fighting planes Tweet This Share on LinkedIn Share on Facebook By Douglas Hamilton JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Formidable in war, Israel was defenseless on Friday in the face of a wildfire, casting around desperately for help from neighbors with fire-fighting planes. Israel was caught flat-footed by the forest blaze... Related News International fire crews fly to Israel's rescue 8:35am EST Wildfire engulfs hills above Haifa, killing 42 Thu, Dec 2 2010 Israel to blame for "collapse" of talks: Abbas aide Thu, Dec 2 2010 Huge Israel forest fire kills dozens: rescue services Thu, Dec 2 2010 From the Bubble to the Trouble: Israel's divide Tue, Nov 30 2010 Analysis & Opinion Nuclear bombs and the Israeli elephant Related Topics World » By Douglas Hamilton JERUSALEM | Fri Dec 3, 2010 9:27am EST JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Formidable in war, Israel was defenseless on Friday in the face of a wildfire, casting around desperately for help from neighbors with fire-fighting planes. Israel was caught flat-footed by the forest blaze now raging for a second day through the tinder-dry Carmel hills above the Mediterranean port of Haifa, because it has no water-bombers. The death of 41 people in the flames on Thursday shocked the country. Some 15,000 Israelis had to be evacuated from their homes as the flames swept down on them unchecked. The inadequacy of the response has been openly admitted. "Israel has never prepared itself in any form for such a need," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "It was never taken into account." He told reporters: "We have to stop the fire. It can only be done with the aircraft, we don't have any other means...We need to bring in more planes." Israel's call for help had been answered by Greece, Cyprus, Britain, Turkey, Bulgaria, Russia, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Spain, Croatia, France and Jordan, Netanyahu said. Israel could buy three state-of-the-art Bombardier Superscooper firefighting planes for the price of just one of the F-35 stealth fighters it has on order. The highly specialized amphibious aircraft, costing $28.5 million each, can scoop and drop six tones of water up to 10 times per hour on a fire that is near a big body of water. The Israeli blaze is only a few km (miles) from the sea. IMPROVISATION But Israel does not have any. Instead it has to rely on Mediterranean neighbors who also face a constant wildfire risk and were prudent enough to buy the water-bomber aircraft. Greece has 21 of them, Croatia 6. Israel instead has chosen to "improvise," critics said. On Thursday night, airforce mobile water cannon designed to operate on flat tarmac could be seen trundling warily into position on steep earthen slopes, their range still quite inadequate. By contrast, Israel has 360 F-16 fighters, far more than most countries outside the United States that have bought the world's best-selling attack plane, not to mention many F-15s and the whole panoply of costly, advanced military aviation. Commentators said the national Fire and Rescue Service, with some 1,400 firefighters, was simply not prepared for the fire. "Firefighters know that their organization has been systematically neglected by the government for decades," wrote Yaakov Lappin in the Jerusalem Post. Highlighting the need for adequate fire defenses, Israeli army planners say the densely populated Tel Aviv metropolitan area could be the target of a missile blitz in a future war, while northern towns could be set ablaze in a rain of short-range rockets from Hezbollah in Lebanon. 1 2 Next World We welcome comments that advance the story directly or with relevant tangential information. We try to block comments that use offensive language, all capital letters or appear to be spam, and we review comments frequently to ensure they meet our standards. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above. 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