Hamas is using terrorist tactics, no question. The Palestinians consider the existence of Israel itself to be pretty much a terroristic land grab of their own country, right? So the Palestinians kind of really want their country back, by any means necessary? Seems kinda irreconcilable.So what, even in theory, could resolve this? I mean, that doesn't require the Palestinians to shut the **** up and give away their land at the point of a sword. Which doesn't seem entirely a reasonable demand.
Officially, the solution is two states, side by side. But to the extent there have been attempts to get there, the more extreme factions of any side that gives anything, will try to destroy the proceess.
There
have actually been some steps that have been progress. But also backward steps too.
If you think about how all the Arab countries were once fundamentally opposed to any recognition of Israel, this has changed when it comes to Egypt and Jordan. The former led to the assassination of the Egyptian President.
Then of course Yassir Arafat of all people actually ended up shaking hands with Yitzak Rabin, with that resulting in Rabin’s assassination.
Israel has given up land such as the Sinai and Gaza.
This shows to me that the solutions are not impossibly irreconcilable.
But what DOES make the situation more intractable is the religious claims on the land. Hamas, Hizbollah and Iran’s religious nutcases cannot be placated. Hamas have apparently made some claims that they will no longer demand the eradication of Israel, but as we can see those claims are worth nothing. For me this is like the claims by people like Front Natiaonle or the BNP that they are no longer racist. They don’t deserve any benefit of the doubt and we can see why.
Hamas has essentially proved that Israel’s security issues are real and that the walls and surveillance are necessary. This is a **** state of affairs for Gazans, of course. It makes me sick to see civilians in Gaza caught in the crossfire here.
At the same time, Israel needs to get rid of its own religious nutcases instead of bringing them into the government. They also have their idiotic fairy tales that lead them to claims that cannot be reconciled with a two-state solution. For that matter, arguably Likud’s own constitution makes it impossible to have a two-state solution so let’s hope that either Netanyahu is thrown out after this or someone with the authority to make a proper peace deal with the Palestinians can happen.
