Jerusalem - Celestial City

Jerusalem and the modern transportation revolutions that shape it as part of the global city.

From Gaston Bechelard to Paul Virilio

Gaston Bechelard and Paul Virilio are two of the greatest French philosophers of the twentieth century. They have many similar characteristics: Phenomenological and the anti-structuralist approach. Cognitive fracture as a key for understanding human behavior. Existence of eternal movement, speed and present. Flight and aviation as key amplifiers of consciousness. Importance of material reality and especially architecture. Negation of Post-modrnism. Poetic writing style. Affinity for physics of relativity. Different characteristics are: Purification versus accident. Psychoanalysis versus technology. Classics against Hyper-modernism.

Bechelard [1884 - 1962] was a senior member of the French Academy of Sciences, and greatly influenced postmodern French philosophers. He contributed greatly to the study of the poetics and philosophy of science. He developed the concept of the "cognitive rift", which is essential for the progress of science out of crises. He has extensively developed the concept of "dynamic imagination", according to which the main function of the creative imagination is to refute existing images.

Virilio [1932 - 2018] was a cultural theorist, urbanist and aesthetic philosopher. He is best known for his writings on technology, as it has evolved in relation to speed and power, architecture, the arts, the city and the military. The major concepts he developed are "Dromology" ["Racing"] and "Global Accident". According to them, modern culture, the cyberspace, is instantly virtual. It moves at the maximum speed of light, creating a reality of a uniform world, a huge global city, which is a terminal saturated with detached images and prone to accidents.

For both, fliht and aviation are key to creative thinking. They are  a male-female creature alike and the deity in person. The attributes embodied in these concepts becomes for them, automatically and involuntarily, the creative intuition. This is similar to the reliance of many other creators on these concepts as a starting point for thinking. For example, the issue of UAVs stands out today. It has become a tool through which one can review and summarize any human phenomenon. For Bechelard the UAV is another good conductor, an amplifier, for the imagining mind. For Virilio, it is another link in the de-localization and global accident of humanity.

The difference between Gaston Bechelard and Paul Virilio is the difference between the optimist and the pessimist. Bechelard's point of view is personal and intimate, compared to Virilio's global-cosmic point of view. Bechelard observes in space what the near and familiar reality is, on the personal and private scale. Virilio is replacing Bechelard's dream and reverie with technology and media. He looks at the world from the outer and unfamiliar space, on the superpersonal scale and on society as a whole. Bechelard is the desire, the passion and the hope. Virilio is the surrender and defeat, the inevitable global accident. In Bechelard the world is as round as a well. For Virilio, the world is as square as a screen. Bechelard is innocent and Virilio is cynical. In Bechelard the world opens up and in Virilio it is closing.

While Heidegger, Virilio's spiritual teacher, view the radio as superficial and a reduction, Bechelard saw it as a possibility for deepening and uniting hearts, a kind of universal utopia. The conversations in cafes are loud, but in the universal world of radio, everyone hears each other, and everyone can listen comfortably.

Clues to Bechelard's critique of the "distressed philosophy", as he called existentialist philosophy, can be found without difficulty in all his writings. The refusal of distress was inconsistent with the fashion order of his time, but Bechelard remained consistent in his positions. Boldness was needed to write, in the middle of the twentieth century, in France, in the days of the existentialist climax, that "distress is false: we were created to breathe well''.

Many writers note the psychic powers that Bechelard's philosophy imparts to those who come through its gates, the healing quality inherent in his philosophy, in the possibility he offers, in which man and the world are in constant poetic dialogue. There is indeed a lot of loneliness in Bechelard's philosophy. This is, without a doubt, a philosophy of the individual, the loner. But he is not alone, he is always in the company of the world. Moreover, he is in the company of the beauty of the world. The natural destiny of dreaming, Bechelard believed, is to see the beauties of the world. You can not dream of ugliness in a reverie. Beauty is not only aesthetic, it also a need of the cognitive, ethical and mentality of the person.

Virilio is replacing Bechelard's dream and reverie with technology and media. The sorting and comparison based on the classicical writers by Bechelard, alternates with him to the sorting and comparison based on the present reality. Bechelard's point of view is personal. Virilio's perspective is global. According to Virilio, the world has changed. It is not the same world known by classical works and history. It all became a bustling mega city. We can no longer rely on our natural perception. It was completely distorted by the Tele-Media. The original and new poetic image can not exist in the world of electronic consumerism images, which enslave the imagination and cognition. Loneliness is no longer a sacred value. It is mechanical, and stems from the social split into "human points" created by technology.

The words, too, became worthless. Only the oral experience, the continuity that the delay and acceleration in speech are capable of, remained. It is the stops speech can create, by the wisdom of the thinker, in the mind of the listener. Virilio, through his stretched paragraphs, brings back the reader to the beginning of the social consciousness, of the shoutings of primitive man. He does not have a dialogue with the reader, as does Bechelard. There is hom survival for its own sake. No hand caressing. There is a finger that press the destruction button.

Virilio is one of the most prolific and poignant critics of the drama of the modern technological age. The enterprise of his life is an ongoing reflection on the origins, nature, and influences of the technologies that make up the modern  and postmodern world. He was particularly interested in military technology, representation technologies, computer and information technologies and biotechnology. The question of aviation as a dystopia is central to his thinking, as aviation is a key factor in the creation of the visual world and the global city, a world-terminal that is negatively interactive. Although Virilio does not ruling out technology, he radically criticizes the ways in which it changes the world, and even the human race. The criticism towards him is that he has a flawed perception, which is too negative and one-sided, and loses the empowering and democratic aspects of new computer and media technologies.

Sources:

Gaston Bechelard. The poetics of space

John Armitage. Virilio Live: Selected Interviews

Paul Virilio - Camera movement over eighty years

The properties of the element of fire guide Virilio in writing on the subject. Fire is an almost imageless element, except for three: light, heat, immediacy. The light according to Virilio is the light of the camera, the heat is the weapon, the immediacy is the decision making.

Virilio reviews how the development of the camera was due to the development of the machine gun, and in general how the development of cinematic photography was due to the consequences of various military developments. Observation and visual intelligence are the cornerstone of the military. That is why they have been at the forefront of technology since the dawn of history to the present day. As the weapons became more sophisticated and the slaughter on the battlefield increased, so did the need for more sophisticated means of observation. The observation plane became the most effective means, and in this way the battlefield, and later the whole world, also became cinematic. The war itself became a spectacular visual spectacle, due to the sophistication of the night lights and the intensity of the shells, in parallel with the sophistication of the defenses against them, trenches and fortifications, which created a sense of disconnection.

The function of the camera is first to connect the fragments of the whole that are revealed to it in separate images, into one complete image. Unlike more modern photography, which focuses on details and create resolutions. Nowadays, with the development of means of observation also for the invisible, such as infrared and radar, and other electronic means, the problem is the management of the information that comes from them, which is the most reliable, but also dense. This created the need for computing, and from there it was a short way to make automatic decisions. In this way the war became a nonstop film, and the nonstop time management replaced the management of space. There was also an obsession with stealth weapons, simulations, and electronic deception. As a result, the war became impersonal and intangible.

Because the sense of reality went wrong, so did human reason. The need to filter information under the conditions of human-machine combined activity was first discovered in World War II, with the sophistication of air defense equipment. Thus was founded the science of cybernetics, based on the concept of the system and the feedback, and in particular the negative feedback, which allows for the screening of human errors through practices.

A detached worldview was created as a result, making motion pictures more tangible than reality. Reality, which has been imprisoned and eliminated by the electromagnetic cyber world, is being revived through the worlds of guided imagery of cinema. Movies have become the telescopic rifle through which we look at war in particular, and the world at large.

In World War II, aerial observation, which has become very sophisticated, has become the most important means of feeding raw materials for films designed to portray reality with an objective eye. But the aerial observation also turned the surface into a detached object, as in a laboratory. Everything became too clear and immediate from the air, and repeated evidence was required, as in a laboratory experiment, to confirm any report. This is due to the increasing speed and mobility of the modern ground military movement. The need for a broad verbal interpretation of the outcome of air battles and bombings, has turned silent films into talking films, among viewers in the command rooms. The ability to carry out nocturnal attacks using bright lighting and the use of radar added to the sense of cinematic detachment from reality. The speed of the decision became more important than its correctness. Mobility, the hallmark of the military force, has become a series of means of communication, sent only by the commander-in-chief to any force on the ground. Statistics have become a major tool for him in decision making.

The citizens of the home front have also became partners to the reality of the command rooms. They were attentive to alarms, under the cloud of uncertainty of the bomb approaching them on the one hand, and watched at night the spectacular spectacle of the air defense spotlights and light bombs.

A similar spectacle is currently being experienced by Israeli citizens watching from a protected area in the background during clashes in Gaza, such as in Operation ''Wall Guard'', in which trails of thousands of missiles illuminated the sky. The first Lebanon war is an early and different example of the means of sight taking over the war, using the unmanned aerial vehicles to asist the airplanes.

In World War II, the culmination of the spectacle of light and fire was the atomic bomb. Immediately after the war it was replaced by the exhaust from the jet aircraft engines, and a few years later the fire emitted by the missile engines launched into space. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, which required an immediate response from the United States following fears of launching missiles from the island, expressed the empowerment of the processes that connected the observation, immediacy and weapons, that are a modern incarnation of primodial fire.

In the Vietnam War, unmanned jet aerial vehicles were used for the first time, as part of a sophisticated electronic system of aiming and collecting data from various sensors. The UAVs, and the missiles launched by pilots remotely using the Send and Forget method, contributed to the disengagement of the fighters from the war. What remains is the link between the flash of light and the war. For war as a vision in Vietnam contributed the use of drugs by soldiers. War as a cinema has become a default.

In the 1970s, the advanced flight simulator was developed, which enabled full simulation of operational flight, and became almost its replacement. The flight has become a cinematic misenscene. Strategic deterrence was also practiced through electronic war games. The computerized maps, created using the aerial scan of the surface, created a new world of computer mapping, imaging and navigation. The pilots were given an overhead display, sophisticated helmets, and the ability to fly and launch through speech and eye focus. The flight became automatic. The eye and the weapon merged.

The critical space according to Paul Virilio

Global urban geographical decentralization, which is a major phenomenon nowadays, has led to the creation of huge cities and an endless, legal and illegal suburban expansion that extends across entire countries. The State of Israel, in particular, has long since became, due to its small size, population density, and lack of governance in the area of ​​regional planning, a single suburban city. This situation is changing the definition of sovereignty. It marks the end of the uniqueness of the place, which characterizes the old political stage and the historic city, and its replacement by the principle of immediacy, the unity of time, which is a politics of intensity and interactivity, of a technical set-up. Systems architecture has finally replaced the historic architecture and urbanism system.

The ubiquitous, immediate presence is being followed by the replacement of the traditional agenda, which was based on the solar cycle,  with accelerated technological agenda, realized by the electronic and digital media. The accelerated agenda is pushing past habits of populating space. The stable regional and urban planning of the space has long been replaced by a general lack of restraint, under social enslavement to accelerated technology. Accelerated technology accompanies humans on their daily journey by high-speed means of transportation, aircraft, cars and trains. These means of transportation greatly eroded the importance of the traditional urban space. Humans have become transfer players in the geographic space, where they are constantly mobile.

A third reason for the disintegration of traditional space is modern weapons, the operation of which is characterized by automatic remote decision-making at lightning speed. A heavy critical mass has been created, heralding a catastrophe of the dismantled historic city, of the traditional urbanization, as well as of the state.

Because the cohesive spatial layout was lost in favor of an invisible morphological configuration, a committed personal, interactive isolation was created. An atomization of the individual was created. In this accelerated process, the individual is awaiting return to the homeland, but has no escape from life in the suburbs.

The endless urban expansion marches along with the inner urban collapse. Both together eradicated the distinction between urban population and colonial settlement. They obscure national citizenship, the very obligation to grant significant political citizenship to populations under authority. Separating colonialism from state citizenship is completely impractical, given these urban processes. The sense of enclosure in the kibernetic space is common to all sectors.

Both sides live on the scale of individual survival. Each of the two types of citizenship has, in practice, rights and obligations that equal their status. The "colonial" citizen is exempt from military service and other civilian duties. He is able to build his private home on state land without obtaining building permits, not paying taxes, marrying several women and more. The "state" subject is obligated to obey every law, mild or severe, and the authorities take every opportunity to impose authority on him. Both types of citizens enjoy free basic social and health insurance. The economic ties between them are numerous and diverse.

The traditional extroverted international colonialism, which was characterized by the occupation of territories far from the homeland, has now become an internalized colonialism, dominated by global technology and media corporations. The traditional city collapsed into itself and crumbled. The centers of major cities around the world have become slums.

The immediate interactivity of the technologies has led to the decline in the value of the local human workforce. It gives priority to multinational monopolistic centralism. This is an ideology that denies the rule of national freedom movements. It creates opposing niches for the pursuit of self-management. It corresponds to a minimum country claim presented by economists. This claim enables the creation of technologies that do not require full employment and a real and practical presence of employees.

The pursuit of sovereignty today is a symptom of a simultaneous search for momentum. It is an acceleration that characterizes all separation movements, that exists between all contemporary urban classes, regardless of their national identity. The aspiration for political isolation is of extraordinary dimensions, and includes all sectors of the population. The anti-establishment ecological movement has long exhibited its enormous dimensions, for example in the North American survival movements. Survival movements can also serve as a touchstone for their absurd chances as a counterculture.

Today the spatial disruption has become the disruption of time. Transience has become a key concept in employment. Technical unemployment, temporary employment, dispersal of the wage burden, fragmentation of the labor system, fragmentation of residence, fragmentation of the family, and so on, have become the distinctive hallmark of life today. In addition, a culture of online social networking has been created, based on similar principles.

The traditional family and community, which were the building blocks of national identity, have disappeared. They fell apart following the modern lifestyle. This disintegration also has negative consequences for the status of citizenship, as it allows for disobedience to state institutions, such as through a tax revolt and a lack of governance. There is no real civic center, almost no valuable political center. The real weapon is first and foremost the position, array and direction of the forces present in the current systemic deployment, which tends to completely neutralize the ties between the citizens, the neighborhood unit.

As a result, the development of terrorism today is limited. Terrorism has nothing to do with substansive actions today. In fact, the various national terrorist movements have never had anything to do with opposition to the collapse of traditional urban systems. They expressed a utopian connection to the homeland, while the land of their longings had long since became a suburb. 

Traditional terrorist bodies are today  inefficient and irrelevant, in the reality of mega cities, which are spreading and collapsing simultaneously and uncontrollably. First, they arose to present a false utopian vision of the homeland, but not to deal with the urban issue as reality requires, by way of presenting an independent alternative to urban renewal. Second, they operate in a crumbling society, because the family and the traditional community, which are the source of classically organized resistance, no longer exist for all the inhabitants of the mega cities. Third, they operate in an outdated strategy, of conventional weapons, while the key today is the technological weapon, based on speed.

Military technological progress, which nowadays dictates political decision-making, is characterized by ballistic missiles. Everything is known today in very short durations, a few minutes and sometimes even less. The first response doctrine argues that in order to achieve the target, the nuclear missiles must be launched before those of the enemy have left the ground. These characteristics are similar to those of unmanned aerial vehicles, which are currently the most common weapons in the war against terror.

In order to be able to express themselves, the various political resistance bodies must adopt quick quantum thinking like lightning, based on time and not on space, and act according to commutes between center and fringe, in the territory in which they are located. Speed also requires action in attacks instead of defense. This is at the risk of losing self-identity, which is typical for quantum decision makers. They also run the risk of lack of public support, engaged in time management in a technological and informative race, and baseless political promises, in an urban environment that has lost its original identity.

The article was written based on Paul Virilio's book "The Critical Space".

Moon shines over Haifa Bay

Moon shines over Haifa Bay

Urban Murals of Faces with Vegetation as Hair

Amazing Street Art That Cleverly Interacts With Nature

Cincinnati Murals

Haifa Bay in the future - a suggested plan for an international airport

Haifa Bay in the Future according to Haifa's Backyard blog

The illustration above is of a suggested plan for an international airport in Haifa Bay, Israel. It will be combined with a maritime port. 

By clicking on the picture, the enlargement will show clearly the 2 smaller maps below the large one. The map on the right shows the current view of Haifa Bay. The left map, with the yellow spots, is Haifa Bay according to disasterous government plans.

These plans, which are already in early stage of construction, are for a Chinese managed huge container port. 

This port has no natural logistic hinterland, so it will seize its land from Haifa Airport and Kishon Park. It will cancel any option for their existence! It will shut them down!

The new port will serve also as a huge fuels terminal, for the expanded refineries, a move which will seal the fate of Haifa metropolitan area. It will block any possibility for its development. Worse then that, it will increase the cancer rate of the area, which is already very high, because of the air polution locked in the stadium shaped bay. 

The 2 runways in the illustration reflect a new building concept, of a runway which is extended into the sea combined with a waves barrier and docks for a maritime port. The runway is a 'rib' of the port.

The 2 runways lenghs are based on the continental shelf of the bay, as seen by the difference of the water color. The runways are extended from the current small airfield, which is capeble today only for small passengers airplanes landings. The 2 suggested runways are suitable for Boeing 747 landings and are about 10,000 feet long each.

Singapore, which has the largest maritime port in the world, is prospering thanks to its international airport, which had won for the last 4 years in a row the title of the best airport in the world. The economic comparision 'ןאי the decaying economic of Haifa is obvious.

The Green parties of Haifa are making desperate efforts in order to reverse the catastrophic government decisions. Without international cooperation their chances are poor. 

Zionist, Jewish, liberal, Green

To the titles of: Zionist, Jewish, liberal, it is appropriate to add the title: ''Green''.  

The State of Israel sees the image of Israel as the land of the Bible a central component of its identity and religious tourism is one of the most important parts of its economy. 

Idyllic appearance is probably the most important criterion according by which Israel is examined by the peoples of the world. Likud party should adopt the identity ''Green". This identity is also the key for economic prosperity of Israel, as it encompasses a great many technological horizons, including the use of alternative energy, advanced public transport, urban and regional planning and more. In many areas the state leads.

The country is one geographical unit of Environment and Planning from the Mediterranean to the Jordan river. The insight of the entire land of Israel as one environmental unit must be reflected in all government programs.

But the desolate land of the Zionist pioneers is now largely covered by concrete and asphalt. The Palestinian residents in the country between the Mediterranean and the Jordan river are competing in doing so, creating a clash between two masses of territoriality, which has become a form of terrorism. Already we are experiencing here ecological collapse, it is still slow but could accelerate as a snowball. Nations may prefer the land of Israel as the object of their messianic longings. However, manicured environment generates respect from others, and conditions for peace can be realized for granted in a country which is working on the development of the natural landscape.

The chaos of the improper regional planning in Israel expanded to the municipal and metropolitan environment and has become embedded in Haifa metropolitan area in particular. In this metropolis, with the capital city of Haifa, there are dozens of smaller settlements, most of which are located in the bay and its surrounding. The total population is close to one million. But there is almost no coordination between communities, coordination that could be realized within the framework of consolidating authorities.

Many citizens of Haifa metropolitan area, a region with a rich history and educated population, seen as a subject of central importance for their future and the entire State of Israel, the gradual and full termination of petrochemical plants and their facilities in Haifa Bay, which dominate the area and are very dangerous in terms of health, safety, and for socio- Economic reasons.

From a health perspective, Haifa metropolitan area is suffering from cancer in a percentage which is much higher than the average of Israel. Ministry of Health thinks of declaring  it a danger to health zone. Citizens, who have been here for decades, should not be suprised of this statement, especially since many years will pass before the declaration will be implemented in practice. Citizens already know this first hand, because their hospital beds are full of sick children, a fact which was confirmed statistically. The full list of the health damage that  pollution causes is very long and has far-reaching implications. It includes brain shrinkage.

The safety-security reason for eliminating the  petrochemicals facilities is clear: Haifa bay is a constant target for instant rocket attacks. Missiles may blow up the entire region and lead easily to tens of thousands of victims.

Economically, there is a big problem throughout Israel of homes shortage and another problem in Haifa metropolitan area of a shortage of jobs, which creates negative emigration from the region. Residential areas should be established, together with advanced industrial zones in this metropolis. The petrochemical plants are on expensive land, near the beach and the river, with spectacular views, in the heart of population centers. The taxes the factories pay are very low, compared to that from a population of millions of people, who can live and work on the same land.

Mayor Yona Yahav and his coalition are supporting the development of toxic petrochemical enterprises and their facilities, together with the establishment of a new monster port. His past mistakes caused deterioration in the health and socio-economic situation. Haifa metropolitan area is already in a decaying course.

Environmental activists of Haifa metropolitan area are monitoring available polluion statistics of the petrochemical facilities. They professionally oppose the dangers of increasing their capacity. 

Their efforts are combined with those of urban planning experts against the government programs for new and unnecessary port with a huge yards, on reclaimed land from the sea.

These days, opposition activists following the official programs focus on:

Tripling the production capacity of the Bazan refineries.

Construction of a huge fuel tanks farm nearby.

Huge containers docks and yards, togehther with petroleum dock, on reclaimed area from the sea which will serve as a "new port".

Haifa new master plan which is in favor of all of the above.

Their opposition proceedings are against government programs that are in the final stages of formal approval. If these programs are approved it will seal the future of Haifa and Israel. These programs will make Haifa metropolitan area a Third World place:

Most fuel production will be for export.

Most of the containers at the ugly giant yards will be staying for a short transit time between large to small ships.

The pollution will increase greatly as a result of increased production.

Safety and security risks will grow because of the explosive potential of dense installations.

Haifa's green activists were born into this situation, of living near petrochemical plants and a port which block the sea. They gradually gather new insights and conclusions in a learning process. They hope that the world will help them assess the situation, so we all will enjoy the true gifts that the land can offer.

Even if you solve the problem of air pollution there will still be the problem of the economic absurdity of the existence of petrochemical plants in Haifa metropolitan area. 

This absurdity can be illustrated using the following question: How would Tel Aviv metropolis developed if the international airport will be replaced with petrochemical plants? Will it enable economic growth in the region, or it would become desolate and deserted? Petrochemical plants in Haifa bay provide employment for thousands of workers, compared with the hundreds of thousands who make a living, directly and indirectly, from the airport. This is an ongoing farce. These plants, spread out all around the bay and are its dominant view, are dinosaurs which destroy everything good.

The economic future of Haifa metropolitan area should be based on advanced clean industries, fruit of its academic institutions, and utilization of the unique natural features of Mount Carmel and Haifa bay, with a beach of a potential for 30 kilometers of riviera, close to major religious sites and more. 

But Haifa may be left without attention, as a metropolitan with no airport, no beaches, no jobs and no homes. 

Haifa Bay is enjoying beautiful weather, sunny, clear and calm for most of the year. It is likely to attract many tourists to its the beautiful and historic sites. Tourists currently only pass through on their way to other places. The bay is originally one of the most beautiful areas in Israel. With the beach, mountain and river, it is a spectacular landscape. Combined with its geographic advantages for deep ports and transportation routes it  could become a global center such as Singapore, or at least Beirut our nearby competitor. Instead, in its heart are the polluting factories, which have accumulated huge debts to the authorities and are with unclear future in light of changing market conditions.

Singapore has limited land resources, and its leaders were wise enough to realize that for developing its human resources they need to develop the place properly. In addition, they realized that they must ensure the development of an international airport. Today, airport revenues make up about 20% income of the city-state, which operates the largest seaport in the world. Singapore is the role model for the independent Chinese growth regions, which have become the economic powerhouse of the world. Haifa metropolitan area is in need of a major international airport, surrounded by high-tech business. The contribution of an airport city here will be much more greater than to Singapore, thanks to the aviation industry we have developed.

There is no practical way for the establishment of a civil airport at Ramat-David. Reasons for that fall into several categories:

Strategically, the Air Force and the defense establishment will not give it up now, with the terrible threats from north and east.

There are no geographic conditions for passenger aircraft operations, due to the need to lower and rise quickly over mountain ranges, also with fog for several hours during the day.

Economically, there is no infrastructure for an international civilian airport in this agricultural area which is relatively far from the major population centers of the coastal plain.

International airport in Ramat-David will destroy the most beautiful valley of the country, the Jezreel Valley, which is one of our last beautiful landscapes.

Haifa Bay can have two runways for Boeing 747 on the same area now designed for the new container yards. Undoubtedly, long runway into the sea in Haifa will be high on the list of the world's most spectacular landing sites and will help greatly to make the entire metropolis a tourism site. On the side of the long runway can be port docks, and doing so will increase the size of the planned port. Although the combined runway/breakwater will be very long, the extension of the breakwater against it, on the western side of the bay, will enclose economically a very large area of safe water.

Plan to extend the runway into the sea in current Haifa airport, which was build by the British and was never changed, were prepared by experts chaired by minister Ephraim Sneh back in 1995. They were approved by the highest committy, but was opposed at the last minute. This may be because the plan was not supported by equivalent gradual termination of the petrochemical plants which are close to the airfield. This program is currently still supported by the city's senior economic officials, who envision the international airport realized through several beats.

The plants, along with the unnecessary port, must move to third world countries, on purely economic criteria, as many other industries immigrated to these countries, where there is huge demand for them, and the labor and land costs are lower. An example of a manufacturing industry which was successfully transferred from Israel is the textile industry.

An area suitable for the transfer of the petrochemical plants is the coast of the East African countries that have friendly relations with Israel, such as Ethiopia and Kenya. These countries are also near the oil resources of the Persian Gulf. Oil refineries there will be able to interact with non-political connection with the State of Israel and enjoy all the associated economic benefits.

It is possible that the gas reserves discovered off the coast of Haifa has also a lot of oil. Noble Energy wants to build the gas and oil tankers terminal near the rig and we should support the company in this process. The gas and oil for local use, piped to Israel, could be processed in small facilities, to be constructed away from inhabited areas, if it is decided that Israel must be independent about it. But it is also possible to completely give up the production of refined fuels and settle for the establishment of large reservoirs to serve the economy in times of emergency.

The world is in transition for clean energy, particularly solar energy. Within a decade solar energy will be a major part of mankind's energy resources, so there is no financial reason to invest in oil infrastructure at the present. Transfering from Haifa bay of the petrochemical enterprises should be integrated with operations of increasing the use of clean energy in Israel.

The list of Israeli government ministers of 2015 consists of a large number of senior ministers formerly from Haifa metropolitan area. In addition, there are several ministers closely associated with the issues of regional development and the problems of Haifa metropolitan area. They can act to save the metropolis. This may be a unique opportunity.

Government ministers with connection to Haifa metropolitan area are:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - originally from Jerusalem, but his wife Sara is from Tivon, which is located near the petrochemical plants. They live in Caesarea, near the largest power station of Israel and also close to Haifa.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon - Ya'alon was born and raised in Haifa and in Haifa University he graduated in political science.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett - Bennett was born and grew up in Haifa. 

Moshe Kachalon, Minister of Finance - was a military man in its suburbs. After his military career he opened a small business in downtown Haifa, was a resident of Haifa and a member of the Likud branch in the city, where his political career began.

Yuval Steinitz, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure - studied and lectured at the University of Haifa and was a city resident and member of the Likud branch for many years.

Interior Minister Silvan Shalom - expert in regional development, deputy prime minister, a cabinet member, and minister of regional development and rehabilitation. A public figure like Shalom should take charge in Haifa Bay.

Yoav Galant, Minister of Housing and Construction - served as a fighter and commander of Squadron 13, headquartered near Haifa. He holds a BA with honors in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Haifa. Lives in Amikam, near Zichron Yaakov.

Miri Regev,  culture and sports  minister -  support green organizations of Haifa metropolitan area.

Benny Begin, a minister without portfolio - an expert on the subject of illegal settelments. 

The spectacular amphitheater view of Haifa bay creates within the viewers a constant stimulation for action, often too hasty and expressed in actions and programs unreasonable, especially given the antagonism of the petrochemical plants and ugly container yards. The combination of maritime and airial transport systems, described above, is an elegant solution to that issue.

There is great importance to the gradual evacuation of the oil refineries from their current location. They are exactly in the rear of the airport, in the orbit path which is essential for large passenger aircraft. The refineries area should become entirely part of the Kishon Park, a park which will be designed as a combination of a metropolis green park and airplanes orbit path.

Creation of Haifa International Airport should be combined with the gradual evacuation of the plants and petrochemical installations in the bay. In this way land reserves will be created for residential buildings and advanced business and industry. Many jobs will be created for the airport's needs. The slogan: ''No to Refineries - Yes to Airport'', should be made a reality.

Coastline of Haifa bay look like a golden spiral

Coastline of the entire bay from Haifa to Acre is similar to a whole golden spiral.
It is like an extended seashell.

Transfering the petrochemical plants from Haifa Bay

Bazan refineries, in the background, dominate the landscape of Haifa bay and destroy it

Citizens of Haifa metropolitan area, an area with rich history and educated population, regard as a major issue for the future of them and Israel the gradual and complete elimination of all petrochemical plants and facilities in Haifa Bay, which dominate the environment and are very dangerous from health, safety and socio-economic reasons.

Haifa metropolitan area suffer from cancer diseases in a percentage which is much higher then the average of Israel. In one form of cancer it even hold the world record. The ministry of health think of declaring the area as a "Health Hazardous Zone". The citizens, who suffer for decades, do not need this declaration, specially because it will take numerous committees and researches to apply it. The citizens already know it so well because their hospitals beds are filled with children sick of cancer, a fact which is approved statistically.

The safety reason for eliminating the plants is obvious: Haifa bay is a constant target for immediate missiles attacks which can blow the whole area and cause easily tens of thousands of victims.

There is a big housing problem in Israel and shortage of work places in this area which create negative immigration. Modern residential and occupation areas should be set up here. The petrochemical plants are situated on valuable land, on sea and river shores, with a spectacular view and in the heart of population centers. The Taxes that they pay nowadays are far lower compared to the taxes from a healthy population which can live and work in the future in this currently under developed surrounding.

Haifa metropolitan area ecology activists put great efforts on monitoring the current pollution statistics from the petrochemical facilities and object professionally to the dangers of increasing their capacity. Their efforts are combined with those of urban planning experts, who focus also on plans for a new unnecessary huge private port on reclaimed land from the sea.

These days the activists objections are focused on the following formal plans:

A. tripling of the production capacity of Bazan refineries under the name of ''new arrangement''.

B. building of giant fuels containers farm nearby.

C. building of huge container yards and fuels terminal in reclaimed land which will be a private port.

D. new master plan of Haifa which is in favor of all the above.

These opposition proceedings are against government plans which are in the final formal stages of approval. If these plans will be accomplished, the future of Haifa and Israel will be doomed forever.

This plans will turn Haifa area into a Third World place: The majority of the plants production is for export. Most of the ships containers will be in the yards only for transit. The needless petrochemical plants and facilities, together with the extra port, should move to third world countries, if only for reasons of economic viability, as all such industries move to countries with huge demand and low labour and land cost.

Haifa metropolitan area need large international airport, surrounded by an airport city of high tech businesses which will contribute a lot to the local economy. A reclaimed land and clean surrounding can be used for it.

Haifa bay enjoy beautiful, sunny, bright and calm weather most of the year and could attract many tourists to this basically beautiful and historically rich area, tourists who at the moment just pass by and go to other places.

Haifa's mayor Yona Yahav and his coalition support the development of the poisonous petrochemical plants and their facilities, together with the formation of the new monstrous port. It will deteriorate the health and socio-economic situation here. As a result of his mistakes Haifa metropolitan social-economic structure is already crumbling.

Haifa's green activists were born to this situation of living near petrochemical plants and a port which block the sea, so they gradually collect new insights and conclusions in a learning process. They hope that the world  will help them to evaluate the situation with objective eyes, so we shall all enjoy the true gifts this land has to offer us.

Elimination of polluting petrochemical plants in Haifa Bay

A major issue for the future of Israel is the importance of the elimination of polluting petrochemical plants in Haifa Bay, which are very dangerous from a security perspective too. 

Instead modern residential areas should be set up. 

Like the military bases evacuation in centeral Israel, this will help solve the problem of housing too. 

The Petrochemical plants are situated on valuable land, on sea and river shores, with a spectacular view and in the heart of population centers. State taxes these  plants pay are far lower compared to the taxes to be paid by a population which can live in new cities on their grounds.

These days opposition proceedings continue to the new master plan of Haifa, which is in favor of the continued development of new port facilities and construction of huge container yards with infinite space, together with development of the petrochemical plants.

The majority of the plants production is for export and most of the ships containers will stay in the yards only for transit.

The needless extra port and the plants should move to third world countries, if only for reasons of economic viability, as in the past the textile industry moved from Israel to such countries. 

Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav and his coalition  are in favor of the formation of the new monsterous port and development of the poisonous pertochemical plants. As a result of this conceptual failure Haifa social-economic structure is crumbling.

Terrorism of poor regional planning in Israel

The 'Human figure map of the Holy Land' was created, in part, from a desire to give the  environmentally wounded Land of Israel an idyllic look.

The desolate land with a natural look which was attended by early Zionists is nowdays largely covered with a layer of concrete and asphalt, in part because of the desire for territorial achivements.

The Arabs who live in Israel and the Palestinian Authority copied the pattern and also conquered the country in the same format, of towns invading endlessly to natural areas.

The result is a clash between two teritorial masses, which already reached a critical level.

Peace to Israel will not come by politicians, nor by capital investments in combined projects of any kind.

Peace will come by geographers and city and regional planners, who will sit and draw maps of areas and settlements under the most desirable and appropriate pattern, to enable the different communities in this land to grow in harmony. 

It will be done not in accordance with 'facts on the grounds' by which, for example, most Arab towns  in Israel were declaired as cities without a proper planning, or asphalt barons constructed more and more highways with intensive consuming of land and the like.

Planning should be done according to what is right and correct from the planning point of view, under the fact that the whole land from the Jordan river to the Mediteranean sea is just one small geographical unit, a small piece of land which should be designed and built under this definition.

This insight of more then just close proximity, the insight of one planning area, was ignored by the international and local politicians.

What will be the benefit of a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians if they will develop in their land concrete communities, which will spread within a few years and will cover all the hills, valleys and plains in an uncontrolled way.

Formulating a peace agreement without a united landscape image, designed and detailed in all aspects, will paradoxically hasten our  common downfall.

There are two theories of general regional collapse due to a severe environmental crisis:

The first describes the gradual and slow collapse.

The second describes an immediate collapse, after many years of apparent stability.

The best known result of terrorist extremism is terrorist acts against human beings. The results which are less published, but are very noticeable for those who know the land, are of construction terrorism, which violate the ecological balance and lndscape views under the arguments of religious, political and sectorial values.

The valleys around the Temple Mount, which were once green areas, had become over the last few decades crowded urban housing and unplanned neighborhoods.

On the other hand, the Israeli government covered the green hills around Jerusalem with suburban neighborhoods.

A building which is built in an inappropriarte  place will remain for centuries. Even if it would be demolished, there will be a very long time until nature will cover the ruins. 

This is in contrast to air pollution, which can be fixed within a relativly short time.

These serious facts on the ground are a form of terrorism that makes the conflict insoluble.

Alleged minor defaults of local authorities, which are not careful enough about construction laws, including careful planning and tight control, are the real source of the conflict today.

The Christian powers watch after the handling of the State of Israel in the field of regional planning. 

For them the State of Israel is part of the Holy Land, the idyllic land of the Bible and the New Testament, which is the object of all time longing.

Perhaps they prefer an ecological disaster, the result of construction violations which will make the country a no man's land, where might makes right.

Such a disaster is in accordance with the Messianic Christian concept of heavenly Jerusalem and the land of Israel as a place of longing only.

Environmental issues are very important to Germany in particular. Germany's re-unification was performed largely thanks to the strong German Green Party.

If we will learn to understand the critical importance of regional planning and establish appropriate authorities to enforce it properly, we can leverage it to a level where a peace agreement with the Palestinians would not be necessary.

Peace will be realized for granted in a country which is working on maintaining and developing the natural landscape, just as a person is recognized and respected by those around him if he behave properly.

Man is shaped in the pattern of the landscape of his birthplace.

The chaos of unplanned environment is spreading also to the planned urban environment.

Here are some examples of planning chaos in the cities in which we live:

Haifa metropolitan area is where the situation of the environment is getting worse all the time, in terms of regional planning in particular. For example, small adjacent cities with similar communities in Haifa bay create a dense cluster and long had to be united into one big city. This was not done and the result is a multi-year environmental cheos. The lack of strong leadership contributed to continous dangerous air pollution from the petro-chemical factories nearby.

The situation of public transportion in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area is very poor, according to a series of articles.

The damage that poor public transportion cause to the economy is enormous. Time lost for every citizen is accumulated into millions of hours each year. But it seems that none of the politicians is raising his glove, and we hear about a record year of cars sales, traffic congestion and endless new highways.

Israel need a 'Singapore Program'. Singapore has limited land resources and its civil leaders understood that they can not allow uncontrolled construction, that will prevent them from developing human resources properly. Therefore they have enforced strict rules in the field of environmental protection. Singapore is now a symbol and an international role model, but there is no political party in Israel which adopts this symbol.

There are many Insufficient government authorities in Israel, such as National Land Administration, currently undergoing a paradoxical  reform for privatizing state lands on one side and creating a unit for maintaining land resources on the other.

Preserving and maintaining the very limited land resources of Israel requires people of military stature, generals who will conduct the campaign against the territorial terrorism.  

They'll have to deal with the issues of enforcement of planning and building laws in a military disciplined manner. There should be headquarters, intelligence, forces, spokesmen and so on, as in any orgenized army.

Earth is an irreplaceable resource.

Buoyant Airborne Turbine

Introducing the Altaeros BAT: The Next Generation of Wind Power

Herman Shtruck Museum in Haifa

Herman Shtruck Museum

Hermann Shtruck (1876-1944) is considered one of the most important print artists in Germany and in Israel in the first half of the twentieth century. For more than forty years of operation, as successful and respected artist, he created a plethora of works on paper, mainly in two kinds of topics - portrait and landscape. His famous series of portraits immortalized the greatest intellectuals and scientists of his time, including the most famous painting in contemporary Judaism - a portrait of Theodor Hertzel.

Hermann Shtruck : Portrait of Theodore Hertzel

In addition to his artistic work Shtruck took an important part in the Zionist movement. His major artistic initiatives led to the establishment of Tel Aviv Museum of Art and Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem.

Shtruck was recognized as preeminent graphic arts teacher and began teaching art print even while in Germany. Among his many students were Max Liebermann, Marc Chagall, Jacob Steinhardt, Joseph Bodko and others.

In December 1922 Shtruck moved from Berlin to Haifa. Shtruck's settling in Haifa was a cultural event which Israel did not know before. Shtruck was internationally recognized Jewish artist and contributed greatly to the development of the artistic community of the north of the country in general and the city of Haifa in particular.

Shtruck settled in Haifa in a three-storey building at Arlosorov Street 23 in Hadar Carmel, designed by his friend Alexander Berwald - one of the greatest architects who were operating in the first half of the twentieth century. He restored his studio in Berlin and gathered a club of students specialized in various print techniques. Among those who attended were Anna Ticho, Zvi Goldstein, Joseph Ehrlich and others.

Shtruck's home today is a preserved elegant building of historical and architectural value. In 2013, after a reconstruction project that included the renovation of the building, while retaining the original details, it was opened as a museum which recreate the appearance and the original spirit of the house as it was in the life of Shtruck.

The purpose of the museum is to illuminate the portrait of Hermann Shtruck in all circles of his cultural and social creativity and activity. The museum's display include furniture items, rugs, personal items, books and oil paintings by Hermann Shtruck, alongside works from the collection of Haifa Museum of Art. On the top floor of the museum will soon be opened a creative activity center, including workshops for print and etching, sculpture and painting.

Temporary exhibitions of the museum will be dedicated to the multi-scale creation of Hermann Shtruck and the art to which the artist devoted his life - print. Exhibitions will focus on issues, ideas and cultural trends in the modern era. Display platforms will bring together the work of Shtruck with other artists that work in the graphic arts field today in Israel and abroad, with the aim to conduct a dialogue between periods and points of view.

Sources:  מוזיאוני חיפה, הרמן שטרוק, בית הרמן שטרוק