admitted last week on Cenk's show, it is not Israel that is standing in the way of that deal. It is Hamas which offers only a 100-year truce in exchange for recognition of its statehood by Israel and Hamas, which retains the provision demanding the right of return in its Charter (as you admit here).
Further, there were many Jewish settlements in Israel and also even at least one in Gaza before the Partition. Many of the settlements established in the 19th Century were on land that Jewish groups legally purchased from the Palestinians. The estimated non-Jewish population of the area which included land beyond what is now the Palestinian areas and the State of Israel was about 800,000.
The population of Palestinian areas not including Jordan (which was part of TransJordan the designation of the area that included Jordan and that was in the British protectorate after WWI and the Allies victory over Turkey) according to the CIA Factbook is 2,407,681. The population has about tripled since the 19th century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_Palestinian_territoriesI do not know, but I believe that Israel is trying to intimidate and weaken Hamas so that it can negotiate with Fatah. Sitting at our computers in the safety of our homes in the U.S., it is easy for us to criticize the "paranoia" of Israel. But I have personally lived in Germany and Austria and met survivors of the Holocaust. Some of my husband's family are survivors (not Israelis).
I appreciate that Cenk understands that Jewish people need a safe place to live as a people in which they do not have to depend on some other people guaranteeing their safety.
The Palestinians do not have to live as they do. They would do well to challenge other countries in the Middle East to help them find a way to improve their standard of living. But before that can happen, the Palestinians have to stop thinking about the past and getting revenge and start focusing on making the best of what they have. That is what the Holocaust survivors had to do. That is what every refugee has to do. The refugees from Eastern Europe, from Viet Nam and from many other places in the world have had to make new lives and give up their anger. Change is a part of life. National boundaries are not as permanent as many think.
For a year I lived in Strasbourg in the Alsace-Lorraine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alsace-LorraineThe people who live there speak (or at least spoke during the 1960s) a dialect in which they mix French and German. The Germans and French fought over the area time and again. (It is home to the famous Maginot Line.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maginot_LineSince the end of WWII, the area has been a part of France.
The achievement of peace between France and Germany especially the peace in the Alsace-Lorraine is a model for what could happen between Israel and the Palestinian territories. It can happen either by a military victory by one side or the other as in the conquest of Germany by the Allies during WWII or by peaceful cooperation between the parties.
Both sides in the Palestine/Israel dispute understand their choices. As long as Hamas insists on choosing violence and refuses to recognize Israel as a state, as long as Hamas refuses to live in peace with Israel, Israel will attack. Israel cannot choose peace if Hamas insists on the right of return and the destruction of Israel. It's not going to happen. Personally, I abhor violence of any kind for any reason. There is no excuse for it. But, as long as Hamas refuses to even talk about recognizing the existence of Israel, as long as it retains the right of return in its Charter, as long as it refuses to punish its citizens if they attack Israel, it will be attacked. It isn't a matter of what I want. It is a matter of Israel's choices. It doesn't have a lot of them. The Maginot Line did not keep the Germans from invading France. The only thing that resolved the conflict over the Alsace-Lorraine was WWII and the horrible violence of that war.
DUers who cheer for Hamas are not helping to achieve peace in the Middle East. What is needed is support for those on both sides who want to resolve their differences peacefully.
The ultimate goal should be two nations with close economic ties, ties close enough that each people understands that it is not only more secure but also more prosperous because it lives in peace with its neighbor.
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