Syria and Iraq internal wars are religious wars where Muslims of one belief often wants to ethnically cleans people with a different Muslim belief or a threat to their political/economic power.

They hold no prisoners! Sadly, life means very little to them.

This is the dilemma facing Israel constantly: how much to reducing its security in the interest of peace with ALL the Palestinians. Most Israelis would like true peace even if they get just a part of the land promised to them. But when Israel left all of Gaza almost no one expected that the Gaza population would so fully support rocketing Israeli civilians at will. Gazans attacked Israel with ten thousand rockets of all types to date! If most of the Arabs there wanted it to stop, they could do it.

The Israelis were deeply mistaken that they could retake Gaza in case of severe militant attacks. Same way with the 2 states proposal. The Palestinians there can lie as in Gaza: “it is not us that is attacking you; these are groups we have no control on.” And the world, who generally is anti-Israeli= anti-Semitic, buys it and condemn Israel measured response.

Now and for the near future, until the Palestinians stop their full anti- Israeli education, hateful Nazi-like media, and government and public support of terrorism and the elimination of Israel, no 2 States Solution is possible.

Look at the map, the West Bank leaves just a narrow 9 miles Israeli neck between the commanding Palestinian hills and the Mediterranean Sea. Rockets from there could stop much of Israeli life. Israel must look for its own long-term safety first and foremost.

A visiting groups of American generals said that it is impossible to defend that setting and Israel must not accept the previous 1967 borders.

Once Israel leaves the Palestinian West Bank, that is it - no coming back. Even under continuous barrage of rockets into the main Tel Aviv region, the center of Israel population-an independent Palestinian state claiming innocence will get worldwide support. Only limited and ineffectual Israeli response would be possible- exactly like in Gaza.

A militant West Bank Palestine could be so much worse than Gaza. Gaza is only 141 square miles; The West Bank is 5860 sq. miles, 42 times larger!

The Gaza border with Israel is 32 miles, the West Bank about 700 miles, 22 times longer. (Not including the back side facing the Jordan- additional problem)

Think about the danger to all Israeli regions. It is a very small country: twenty Israel’s can be dropped into California. So to demand a 2 State Solution in the near future is a dangerous, very dangerous mistake.

Matania

1. Hamas Orders Rockets In Judea and Samaria

Israel has determined that the Hamas regime was establishing an infrastructure for missile and rocket production in the West Bank. The Israel Security Agency determined that Hamas ordered cells in the West Bank to manufacture missiles and rockets. ISA said Hamas operatives were led by a Palestinian attorney and based in the Ramallah area. "Communication between Hamas operatives in Gaza and the members of the terror network was carried out via e-mail and the use of disposable cell...

http://israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=5547&q=1

2. An Atrocity in Syria, With No Victim Too Small

By ANNE BARNARD and HANIA MOURTADA

A massacre that revealed new depths of depravity and routine video footage showing lurid violence have made the prospect of stitching the country back together appear increasingly difficult.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/world/middleeast/grisly-killings-in-syrian-towns-dim-hopes-for-peace-talks.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130515&_r=1&

“I am finishing some papers, I am graduating soon,”

“So now you know everything.” she said.

"No," I answered, “Now I know how little I know.”

She nodded her head in approval and said: “ Now you are ready to graduate.”

From there I went to teach electronics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and when I stood in front of my first class of 30 arrogant, rich, but smart students, I realized knowing is not everything.

Despite my considerable knowledge, (you don’t get to be a teaching assistant at MIT otherwise), I stood with my mouth open not knowing what to say. How can I transfer this inspiring knowledge to these undergraduates?

It did not take long and they learned, despite themselves. And their reviews of my performance was very satisfying (all instructors had to get one from the class).

For a dozen years, from the start of the “Second Intifada” I have commented on the Israeli situation. What I write is not what I want to happen but what I understand was and is happening. Many of you responded, some with approvals, some with anger, I answered each of you.

I want you to see my background so you realize, I hope, that I do not just express opinions just for the fun of it. I study the subjects, I read, I think and I write what make sense to me. Again, it is not what I want to happen, but my assessment of the situation..

So keep commenting and let me know your views. I will answer each of you.

Thanks,

Matania

Professional Background of Dr. Matania Ginosar

Matania Ginosar is an Environmental Scientist & Electrical Engineer. His experience and education have been result-oriented, practical, and hands-on, creating effective solutions to complex problems. His experience covers a wide range of fields: advanced electronic design, R&D, manufacturing, teaching, air pollution, organizing political pressure on Congress, and developing alternative energies. He developed innovative digital field communication for the military, and forecasted technological advances with high accuracy, cutting unwise projects, setting new directions.

His concentration in the last 7 years is on the impacts of Climate Change. He comments on Climate Change at: www.ginosaronglobalwarming.org

Education:

• D. Env - Doctor of Environmental Science and Engineering, UCLA.

• M.S. Engineering (Management). Engineering Executive Program, UCLA.

• Teaching Assistant, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

• M.S. Electronic Engineering - University of Washington.

• B.S. Electrical Engineering - University of Washington.

Some of his Experience:

• Developed and directed the pioneering wind energy program of the California Energy Commission that led to the first commercial wind energy farms in the world.

• Directed the Solar Energy Office, California Energy Commission, concentrated on high-impact, cost-effective solutions.

• Manager R&D electronic systems.

• Manufacturing Manager, seismic equipment for oil exploration.

• Manager, Techno-Economic Dept. Evaluated key projects of a large company.

• Assessed Israel’s wind energy potential for Israel Electric Corp.

• Consultant to corporate managements.

• Hands on: Mechanic, construction, electrician, farming, military service.

• Israeli Freedom Fighter, twice political prisoner, founding member of kibbutz

Some of his achievements:

• His analysis and discussion convinced California Air Resources Board to     tighten air pollution standard.

• Wrote & lobbied CA Legislature for a bill for mass use of wind energy, first in the world, it was enacted.

• Constructed electrical system for a small community.

• Designed underwater communication system for the U.S. Navy.

• Conceived & Directed pioneering Wind Energy Resource Development in CA.

• Lectured extensively on wind energy, including overseas: an IEEE conference and the Haifa Technion.

• Advised CA legislators on several alternative energy bills.

• Advised key US Senate staff on climate change & alternative energy.

• Developed economic analysis of large-scale wind systems in CA.

• Evaluated potential environmental impacts on land by spent oil-shale.

• Developed methodology for setting primary ambient air quality standards for sulfur pollutants.

• Exposed political bias & controversy over CA outer continental-shelf oil.

• Developed statistical digital circuit design, cut costs by 80%.

• Pioneered advanced military digital communication getting many contracts.

• Wrote extensively about Middle East security developments.

• Advised several corporate managements on the developing digital age.

• Lectured widely on advanced electronics.

• Analyzed family planning in China, and population trends in the Middle East.

• Directed, pro bono, for nine years, the development of grassroots pressure on Congress to reduce nuclear weapons.

• A long-term student of effective human interactions, & motivation.

Praise for Dr. Ginosar:

". . . Matania is extremely broad technically and utilizes his wide range of experience . . . to solve difficult problems having complex interrelationship of a multitude of parameters and factors . . . As a result of his ability to forecast trends, his thorough coverage of the problems and potential solutions and his ability to sell his ideas, the majority of his recommendations were accepted by top management and implemented."

J.Harding, V.P. Engineering, Litton Data Systems Division. (with 500 engineers)

"Without your technical assistance, it would have been impossible to develop . . . an effective state wind energy program."

California Assemblyman H.J. Mello

"You have designed one of the neatest, closely honed, and most useful packages for organizing a political action network I have ever seen. . . in my 30 years of wide range of political activities. . . . I have seen political actions kit materials before. None that I have seen, however, can touch a candle to yours. The simplicity, clarity, readily adaptable utility, and a host of other truly subtle design features, in my estimation, bring your material up to the level of an art form. . . ."

Arthur J. Hessburg, Consultant to Peace organizations & Senior VP, General Counsel, Century Life of Americ

*****

If you think this is just amusing, you are mistaken; many Europeans leaders and their people believe that Israel is the cause of most of the trouble in the region. And sadly many kind hearted, idealistic Americans think the same as the Europeans.

In reality the Arab world did not have a Spring Revolution, where individual freedom, women equality, peaceful coexistence and parliamentary elections could have led to Democratic countries and a better life. Sadly, for the foreseeable future the Arab world will continue to be what it has been for hundreds of years; undeveloped, primitive, suspicious, governed by powerful leaders, and dominated by religious fanaticism.

The reasons are basic: The Muslim religion has Sharia laws: obedience to powerful leaders, individuals are not important, human life is not valued. Education is limited to men, and mostly religious, and modern education is opposed. Women are essentially the property of their fathers or husbands. Much of the population is dirt poor, such as half of the 84 millions in Egypt who lives on $2 a day. Most of the Arab population wants strict Sharia laws to govern the lands In addition, a century ago Brittan and France divided the region to artificial nations composed of tribes who hate one another for untold centuries. All of these make the Arab world unstable and miserable for most of its population.

Up to now Israelis were mostly lucky. If you can call luck all the wars, terrorism, and hate the world has been directing at them for so many decades. And they feel keen pain when even their brothers can not grasp the extra ordinary effort they have made all their existence to find peaceful coexistence in the fanatic Middle East. But Israelis made mistakes, signing the 1993 Peace Accord was the biggest Israeli error of all times because it permitted Arafat and Abbas to systematically and effectively radicalize the Palestinians. Leaving Gaza illustrated the fallacy of giving land for peace, and allowed Hamas to acquire legitimacy and bomb Israel at will. In their idealism, the Israeli helped their enemies to flourish.

I don’t envy the new Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon. Israel has no influence on the turmoil in the Arab world. How could he plan Israel response between unstable and massive Egypt governed by the extremist Muslim Brotherhood demanding strict Sharia Laws in the south, militant Hamas in Gaza, Hizbullah from the North- assisting Basher al-Assad in Syria to kill innocent civilians, unstable Jordan- which depends on Israel for its external security, and nuclear Iran’s militant religious leadership. I hope he and Israel will have the capabilities and luck too. That is, that the Arabs will continue to hate one another more than they hate Israel.

The Israelis are very capable, but, don’t think that they are so smart and so strong, that they can take on all the atrocities the Arab world could throw at them.

Israelis want peace. Judaism has thought me to pursue peace, but also be pragmatic, recognize facts, and not wear rose-colored glasses. And most critical: to support my brothers in their time of need, when the Israelis are facing one of the most dangerous future in their short existence.

Matania

The sun was clear, no cloud in the sky, the temperature mild and pleasant on my last visit to Israel in the Spring of 2011. The Arab world was not quiet, nor peaceful, it was in the middle of its internal revolt: the “Arab Spring” with its riots, and killings in a number of Arab states not far from Israel.

Israel was quiet and secure as my son, his wife and my first granddaughter were visiting with me my homeland for the first time. And were enjoying Old Jerusalem and its fascinating history quite a bit.

While the family was wondering around on a nice spring day at the Kotel plaza, the Western Wall, I sat and looked around with pleasure at the numerous activities around this huge and distinguished plaza. Hundreds were praying near the Wall, on the left side the men and the right the women. Several large groups of young military officers were preparing themselves for their swearing-in ceremony. Many with kipas, some serious, some joking around at every opportunity, just having fun. I stopped, listen and observed, enjoying their free spirit, the lovely interaction with their commanders. The harsh military future ahead of them was forgotten for the moment.

As I moved around taking numerous pictures from as many vantage points as I could, using two cameras just to be sure, I noticed at the upper, farther side of this huge Kotel plaza a very large number of police cars. It seemed odd, I had not seen them on our previous visits just a few days earlier. I went closer wondering why the police brought 60 or more cars to this quiet, so peaceful location.

I looked around and found the Police Commander of the Kotel area. A tall, erect, distinguish man, wearing a kipa and smart police uniform. He had a small, well trimmed beard and a nice friendly smile. It was easy to see why he had this important duty, he radiated self confidence and respect mixed with clarity of thinking.

We talked about the Kotel area activities in general and I then asked him in Hebrew: why do you have so many police cars here? On a number of previous visits in the week I did not see even police one car here.

He smiled, but his smile was just a surface smile, to be polite, and after some hesitation said, The Arab world is in a mess right now and some local Arabs want to start riots here also, to drag us into the mess. Today is Friday, and in a short time thousands of Arabs will come to the Mosques above the Kotel for their Friday prayers. Some may want to start a riot, but when they see how prepared we are, they may think twice and drop the idea. Or, if they do start throwing stones on the Jews praying below, as they did a number of times already, or start a bigger riot, we have enough police force here ready to nip it in the bud, quickly, before it triggers the dark mood of other Arabs to join the riot.. We can not take a chance with the Kotel area security.

As we parted, and we continued our tour of the Old City, I noticed the many Israeli military patrols all around the narrow streets and the peaceful march of large number of religious visitors from all over the world enjoying Old Jerusalem and the security of a peaceful Israel.

Matania

2/13

Israel is not perfect and will never be- as no human affair can be. It is a young state under continuous stress of survival. Amazing resilient people! But even they can not do magic. It takes time to improve the situation there. The best thing for now is to enhance Israel's security now and :"give peace a chance"-- as the opportunity may come.

Some people see me as a "right winger"- I am simply realistic, as an engineer and scientist it is in my blood to accept reality and not wish it to disappear--and I spent 9 years full time to create pressure on Congress to reduce the nuclear arms race-pro bono.

I supported the Peace Accord, but reality opened my eyes. Your view that Israel wants to be an apartheid state is strange. Israel does not want to control the Palestinians under its wings. But they are not capable of being peaceful neighbors for the foreseeable future. Read Arab poll below: the dream of the Palestinians is still to use force again.

Just look all over the Middle East- it is an ingrained culture of violence- they murder their own brothers without a second thought. Quarter of a million civilians was murders by sectarian war in Iraq- independent of the war. Some 60,000 were murdered in Syria. As one of the key Hamas leader said: we will win in the end- you care about life- we do not.

The Palestinians should not have a free state- period- It will make life in Israel impossible- see Gaza experience.

They may join Jordan or Egypt- but they do not want them. Giving away Gaza should have wakened any one who is open to reality.

Almost all Israelis want peace with the Palestinians and all Arab states. There is no question about that. But the majority of Arabs/Palestinians want to eliminate Israel-there is no doubt about that either. a century of murders and wars have thought us that without any shadow of a doubt.

even old leftists Israelis accept that reality now. facts overcame their dreams: you remember Shlomo Avinery key adviser to Rabin? he has changed his tune too.

you can not argue and give to a murderer-period. you will die. and that is their hope that Jews and Israelis will argue themselves to death and hate one another "in the name of truth".

Time to wake up from the Galut mentality- "be nice---look how the world is looking at us," and accept the unpleasant reality of life. No other people behaves/think so meekly about their own national survival. Sadly, a devastating experience of 2000 years would not disappear in a century or two.

If I am not for myself, who will be?

If we do not support Israel security who will?

Matania

Palestinian Poll: To Build a State, 60 Percent Say Hamas' Way Is Best - Khalil Shikaki (Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research)

A poll conducted in the West Bank and Gaza on Dec. 13-15, 2012, asked:

In the latest war between Hamas and Israel, who was the winner? Hamas - 81%, Israel - 3%.

Given the outcome of the war, whose way is the best to build a Palestinian state? Hamas' way - 60%, Abbas' way - 28%.

Can people in the West Bank today criticize the authority without fear? Yes - 35%, No - 61%.

Can people in Gaza today criticize the authority without fear? Yes - 29%, No - 59%.

The sale of Al Gore's Current TV to Al Jazeera is apparently more than just a business deal in which the world's most prominent critic of fossil fuels made a fortune with an oil-rich emirate. According to the New York Times editorial page, the creation of a new Al Jazeera America is a blow struck for diversity in journalism. The Times feels Time Warner Cable is wrong to drop the new channel from its broadcast lineup. The implication is that those who have expressed shock or outrage about the spectacle of a former vice president of the United States becoming not merely a business partner but an advocate for a network that is well known for its anti-American and anti-Israel bias are either narrow-minded or in some way prejudiced against Arabs and Muslims.

The idea that the general disgust about Gore's $100 million Arab oil windfall is more evidence of American parochialism or prejudice is absurd. No one is trying to censor Al Jazeera. If there are enough American viewers who want to watch news broadcast from the perspective of the channel's Qatari government owners, then cable providers will give it to them and they are welcome to it. But that doesn't obligate Time Warner or any other distributor to give it valuable space on a list of available channels if there aren't enough viewers to justify such a decision. After all, those who want to look at the world from the point of view of those who promote 9/11 truther myths and who sympathize with those who fought the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan can always watch Al Jazeera on the Internet or find other outlier niches to hold their attention.

The real issue here is not a false argument about diversity. It is instead one about what it means to be a liberal in today's media environment. As Alana noted yesterday, Gore refused to sell his channel to conservative Glenn Beck saying that he didn't wish to see his vanity project fall into the hands of those who disagreed with his politics. Fair enough. But the fact that Gore sees Al Jazeera as a good match for his brand of American liberalism speaks volumes about the nature of that set of beliefs.

Most Americans still think of Al Jazeera as the network that was Osama bin Laden's outlet to the world in the years after 9/11. Since then, it has earned a reputation in some quarters as the best source of news about the Arab and Muslim world, especially during the Arab Spring protests. But its perspective remains one in which the United States and Israel are routinely pilloried and where terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah are depicted as freedom fighters.

I don't worry about Al Jazeera being able to persuade most Americans to buy into this skewed view of the world. What is worrisome is that Gore and other liberals such as the editorial writers at the Times seem to think there is a connection between this perspective and contemporary American liberalism.

Though the overwhelming majority of Americans reject this point of view and are strong supporters of Israel, polls have consistently shown us that liberals and Democrats are less likely to back the Jewish state than conservatives and Republicans. At the beginning of his career Gore was seen as the leader of the next generation of Scoop Jackson Democrats. That Al Gore would never have gotten into bed with Al Jazeera. But in his current incarnation as hypocritical environmental huckster and profiteer he seems to reflect the way the left has abandoned the principles that once united Democrats and Republicans on foreign policy. While conservatives and liberals have plenty to argue about, one would have hoped that they would be united in their revulsion against the kind of bias that Al Jazeera exemplifies. If indeed there is a connection between Al Jazeera's views and contemporary liberalism, there is a sickness on the left that ought to trouble all Americans.

As the US and its administration needs to think about its own needs, so does Israel, or any other country. Netanyahu's responsibility is to satisfy his coalition, that is the way political democracy works. And he needs to look to what they, Israeli majority believes, not Americans, not even American Jews, what is best for Israel.

I am glad that finally the Israelis are showing some smarts, just a little, to build a larger Jerusalem region.

The 1993 Oslo Peace Accord, which I supported, is dead, the Palestinians killed it long ago by breaking almost all agreements in this accord. So the Israelis need to do what is right for them. And the more they build the better it is for Israel. Time for them to stop being second class citizens in the Middle East.   They should not repeat the mistakes they have made, try to placate the Arabs. They take it as weakness and demand more.

The Arabs never gave and inch in any area of importance, if any. Any one who does not yet realize that the Palestinians are only eager to destroy Israel and not make a true peace with it did not study the issue over time and very carefully.

We need to eliminate wishful thinking and be realistic- that is, accept the reality that have been demonstrated for so many years.

As I wrote years ago, I wish for a 2 states solution [demilitarized Arab state!] based on peace and cooperation, this is not possible for many years to come. Not possible. And not because Israel does not want it.

Matania