Excerpts of emails last week from cousin Mattan Biran: I can understand how people might think that

Israel is the bad guy. But its not always that the weaker side is the right side. The world needs to understand that Hamas says over and over that they want to annihilate Israel. The second biggest group in Gaza is Islamic Jihad, and they are even crazier than Hamas, and I dont know how you can be crazier than Hamas. If you see what they teach the children, you will know all about it. Even Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who runs the West Bank] names streets after suicide bombers. They have to stop brainwashing their kids. Israel has compromised many times in the past and will do so in the future if necessary in order to achieve peace. But history makes us wonder: Should we give up more land? Will it help our neighbors to recognize us? Will they finally acknowledge the Jewish peoples rights to settle the land of their fathers? The majority of the civilians here, these days, seriously doubt that. It's enough to look at what happened to Gaza to realize it's not a question of borders. Israel left Gaza in 2005, evacuating it's own civilians from their homes in it's willingness to compromise to promote peace. A few months after the evacuation, Hamas gained force by the use of guns and bullets, killing its opponents in the streets. The elections took place after that. Israel cannot possibly think of opening a free port to Gaza when there are boats each day carrying missiles from Iran to supply Hamas a terrorist organization. Instead, Israel has opened two major border crossings - Erez Crossing and Kerem Shalom -- in order to transport supplies and goods to

Gaza strip. Israel itself is supplying Gaza with power and water, food and medications. In fact any country or organization that feels like supplying the people of Gaza is welcome to do so as long as the cargo is inspected. And who hasn't opened its border crossing to supply Gaza? Egypt. That's right! The country controlled by none other than the "Muslim brothers" won't give a damn about their Muslim brothers. That doesn't bother the civilians of Egypt hating Israel and burning our flag in the streets. They should probably thank us instead and protest against their own government who just doesn't give a damn. Our country has gone through a process of becoming sober. We were drunk after the Oslo Agreements [the 1995 peace deal with the Palestinians]. We still believe in and pray for peace. We really desire it. That is the main difference between us and our neighbors. But Israel has realized that its not a question of borders, because we gave them territory [Gaza] and they didnt do anything for their citizens, they didnt build anything they just went crazy. So after we left Gaza, Hamas took over by force, and now there are two Palestinian states. So what will happen if we evacuate the West Bank, and jihadist or whatever terrorist group will take over? We may end up with three Palestinian states. We cannot live with that. We just cannot agree that every terrorist will get his own country. Now people are starting to wake up and realize that its not about the territories or borders they just want to kick us out. If we could know for certain the conflict will be over, I think we would give up the West Bank today. But we know its [real peace] not going to happen, so why give up more land. Much

of this land is very much Jewish for thousands of years. Why give it up if we know we cant trust them to build a peaceful country. We cannot ignore the fact that millions of Palestinians living around and amongst us, and no one wants to deport them or send them somewhere; everyone knows we have to find a two-state solution. Anyone who thinks there wont be two states is living in a fantasy. The question is how to make sure what happened in Gaza wont happen in the Bank. Bibi [Prime Minister Netanyahu] froze the [West Bank] settlements for almost a year and that wasnt enough. And prior prime ministers were willing to go back to the 1967 borders and divide Jerusalem and that wasnt enough. So most people here dont believe its a question of borders anymore. Neither Hamas nor Fatah recognize our right to exist. These days the people in West Bank have better lives than Gazan people and they know that. They are hypocrites, so they go out and protest, but they know they have much better lives than before when they sent suicide bombers -- and the IDF was all over the West Bank.

One would expect that the world would vouch for Israel right to defend itself. Especially after making such a compromise in 2005 [Gaza]. But still you can hear the voices of politicians and civilians all over the world criticizing Israel right after it responded to the constant missiles attacks. I wonder why. All those who define themselves as human rights activists, where were they for the last seven years when the children of Sderot had 15

seconds to run for shelter? Where are they nowadays when Egypt is still refusing to open the Rafah crossing? Why won't they protest against obvious child abuse when Palestinians are constantly poisoning their children with hatred and brainwashing propaganda worse than Nazi Germany "Race Theory"? Why won't they protest against Hamas human shield strategy: Deliberately shooting missiles from civilian environments? So why should Israel give up more land? A land that was clearly settled by our Jewish fathers and is part of our heritage. Will it help our neighbors to accept us? Off course not! Will it help the world stand united by Israel's side? Of course not. ###