The Israeli-Palestinian Conflift

[Aviel Menter]

What is your opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Do you side with any particular group? Why or why not?

[Vertigo_One [Ops Mod]]

Personally, I don't side with either group especially, though I do have somewhat more sympathy for the Israelis, however my personal allegiance would be towards the two state solution. I would argue that the Palestinians have been the larger obstructionists to that solution, even from the very earliest days when they rejected the UN partition (which would have given them a lot more land than they have now) and right up until modern times, such as the rejection of the 2000 Camp David accords, where the Palestinians were offered 95% of their land, in exchange for peace, and the right to return.

Also, the Palestinians haven't done their cause any favours by electing Hammas. While its true that they might provide a large amount of charitable aid and administrative competence to the region, that doesn't make them legitimate governors. The fact is that intentionally targeting civilian targets has absolutely zero legitimacy as a tactic. The Israelis not only try and target places where the weapons are firing from, they even fly in and broadcast warnings that they are about to target a position. The media likes to talk a great deal about the disparity of civilian casualties, but that doesn't prove that Israel is being disproportionate. That just proves that the Israelis are better at defending themselves.

In the end, both sides need to realise they're going to have to give up some of their holy cows. In the case of Palestine, it's the right to return and that they'll never get a state with the exact borders they want, for Israel it's settlements and the fact that they'll never be as secure as they might like. For both sides, its Jerusalem. No one side can have complete control.

[Aviel Menter]

This is a very cogent analysis and one that I pretty much agree with. What I should mention is that Israel has been willing to compromise on Jerusalem. Both the 2000 Camp David offer and the 2008 Olmert offer gave the Palestinians their neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. The 2008 offer also delayed determination of sovereignty over the old city and thereabouts until a later date because both sides understandably want control over the Temple Mount.