Israel/Palestine

Palestinians were unable to reconcile themselves to Israel before 1967.

Was it ever reasonable to expect Palestinians to treat the dispossession of 700,000 to 800,000 of their countrymen as if it were no big deal?

Anybody anywhere is going be embittered to be put through something like that.

I wouldn't have use the tactics Palestinians used in response to that situation, but at the same time the Israeli side pretty much lost any claim to innocent victim status in this exchange when the dispossessions happened.

This is why Right of Return has to be addressed in some form.

I'd suggest a formula like this

1)Permanent physical return for the elders of '48. Not many of them left, and they're too old to do any harm to anyone.

2)Conditional physical return for those willing to commit to personally accepting Israel's existence in its current form, or the option of accepting compensation, acknowledgment of suffering, and apologies for the suffering having been inflicted(this would also be offered to the indigenous Jewish population of the West Bank who were expelled by the Jordanian government in 1948. Political .representation on the model of French-style "overseas department" deputies in the Palestinian Assembly.

3)For the rest, no physical return(other than visits)but a combination of compensation, acknowledgment and apology as listed in option #2.

The most crucial thing to getting Palestinians to move on about this, I think is to acknowledge that, even if they chose bad tactics, they did and do have legitimate grievances about this and that, as Palestinians need to acknowledge that Israelis sometimes suffered undeservedly in this situation, Palestinians have as well. All the Israelis have offered is compensation, with no admission that any real harm was ever inflicted and no acknowledgement that a significant number of Palestinians were noncombatants who were simply trying to go about their lives as best they could.

It is not helpful to collectively equate Palestinians with the Nazis, or hold them, even today, collectively responsible for the deeds and views of the Mufti.

Both sides are responsible, and BOTH sides have to change and grow and listen to each other.

That's mainly what I am saying.

That's why, while I agree that the Grand Mufti(the only Palestinian Mufti who ever had "Grand" in his title-it was added by the British for some reason)was a total bastard, you can't hold what he did and said against every Palestinian unto his tenth generation.

At some point, there needs to be a restart in all of this, and some recognition of common humanity.