thomas81 wrote:
Most muslims, including Palestinians, just want autonomy and their homelands back and a dignified existance. I don't think thats an unreasonable demand. Palestine needs leaders again like Yasser Arafat, who held out the olive branch in spite of Hamas and their kin.
Who also wanted to see Israel wiped from the map.
That's the entire problem right there - Israel is fighting for its very right to exist. Any serious discussion on Palestinian state must recognise the right of the State of Israel to exist and to defend itself. This is non-negotiable. Without that, there can never be any peace or negotiation.
thomas81 wrote:
Israel's current route of aggression is pushing ordinary Palestinians away from supporting moderation.
If I am smaller than you and punch you (and hide behind my family whilst I do it) and call for you to be wiped out, are you entitled to defend yourself and return fire, even if you end up hurting my family in the process because I have deliberately chosen to hide behind them.
The situation is intolerable for Israelis living in Israeli towns and it's equally, if not more, intolerable for peaceful Gazans that don't support war. Israel only attacks when it is attacked itself - unfortunately, it's always the little people (who do not support terrorists or violence) on both sides that suffer.
The problematic facet within Gaza is an Islamist terrorist organisation that cares nothing for Gazans, Palestinians, or anything else but violent, jihadist, fundamentalist Islam. It's the worst of all possible outcomes for Gazans - they end up locked in a stupid, insane unwinnable war of annihilation against the Jewish state and their people live in squalor, hate and death. When Israel defends itself, the terrorist organisations see it as a propaganda victory when small children end up being killed in the process (but equally couldn't care less that far, far, far more people are being killed in Muslim countries by Muslims). It's pathetic manipulation and I'm amazed that as many people fall for it as they do (even going so far as to use photos of children hurt in the fighting in Syria on pro-Palestinain propaganda leaflets, or to misrepresent Israeli children killed by Hamas as Palestinian children killed by Israel in pro-Palestinian propaganda leaflets).
Jews and Israel are not going anywhere. Israel has offered the Palestinians a two-state solution since its founding in the late 1940s. Every single time, the Palestinians have rejected peace and simply gone to war with Israel, thinking that if they keep things going, they can get rid of Israel. It's not going to happen. They need to face facts and negotiate a genuine, long-lasting peace with them.
If there is to be a two-state solution, the same terms for Palestinians must work for the Israelis. That means no ethnic cleansing of Jews from the territories and no cleansing of Arabs from Israel.