Palestinian Authority Arabs lit the matches to set three fires that blazed through 300 acres of Jerusalem area forest and threatened to reach the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, according to police.
The third fire broke out on Saturday near Kibbutz Maaleh HaHamisha, west of Jerusalem, after Arabs from a nearby village in Samaria threw firebombs at a forest.
Seventeen firefighting crews battled the blaze to keep it from reaching the kibbutz.
Beit Shemesh fire chief Reuven Yitzchak told JNS news service:
In the past week, around 300 acres of natural forest have gone up in smoke. In many cases, the fires were intentionally set with firebombs or various other various means.
Burning down Israel was a favorite tactic of Palestinian Authority Arabs in the Intifada that began in the last 1980s and early 1990s.
So much for the Palestinian Authority’s love of the land.
Terror by arson can be a very profitable operation, with the cooperation of Israel.
The Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael) pays Arabs to plant trees, many of them donated by Jews in the Diaspora.
The Palestinian Authority often pays Arabs to set the fires.
Then the JNF pays the Arabs to put out the blaze.
Maybe that is why Mahmoud Abbas does not want an agreement.