When Israel chose to indefinitely occupy Gaza and the West Bank, it itself created the Palestinian problem of vast numbers of newly dispossessed stateless peoples. If Israel had adhered to UN resolution 242 and returned all the occupied lands after 1967 promptly, then it wouldn't have been in the mess that its in and perhaps the Palestinians could have become Egyptians and Jordanians. But Israel wanted war prizes and so chose to occupy and create stateless, dispossed people and rule over them in brutal apartheid fashion. So Israel is largely to blame for the Palestinian problem because it create it in the first place.
My post was meant less to find whoo is to blame for starting the problem, and more to suggest a solution to end it. As for the mess Israel is in, I think you are confused. Israel is one of the most prosperous and strongest countries in the region, even without oil revenues. The Palestinians are in a mess because they cannot see that it would be to their advantage to stop blaming all of their problems on Israel, accept what they are given, and start rebuilding their lives.
Israel is prosperous because it gets so much aid from the US. Without that aid, it would still be reasonably well off but the cost of its highly militarized society would be far more of a burden. As for Palestinians accepting what they are given, it depends exactly what that is. If they are given almost all that was lost in 1967, then perhaps, If large chunks are lost to settlements and there are various obstacles and such in the way that makes a viable state nearly impossible then no they won't accept that.
To pretend the Palestinians should accept injustice is wrong. To pretend that the Palestinians could somehow build something sustainable while being denied the resources to sustain themselves is foolish. The Palestinians should never accept something that is unjust, nor should anyone. They certainly accept something which denies them the ability to sustain themselves, when a just and possible solution would enable them to have that self-reliance they seek.
I agree with this to an extent and ironically the election of Hamas was an example fo the Palestinians seeking to clean house and take responsibility since the Fatah government was so corrupt. The other problem though is that Israel has done nothing and even the opposite of letting the Palestinians build a successful economy. The Israelis have destroyed the Palestinian economy and infrastructure even without the Fatah corruption. They've made trade impossible both within and without the Palestinian territories, have withheld tax revenue due the PA, and destroyed the meager industrial infrastructure the Palestinians had. As with the situation with Lebanon IMO this was very shortsighted of the Israelis. For a few years after the Oslo accords their was an economic boom in both the Palestinian areas that also benefitted Israel. The Palestinians provided a ready labor pool for the Israeli economy while the possibilities of trade and tourism in Palestinian territories also provided potential benefits to Israel. Most importantly a vibrant Palestinian economy would greatly diminish terrorism and support for extremists like Hamas and as the years following Oslo showed there was very little terrorism. In fact the most notorious terrorists incidents following Oslo were committed by radical Jews. The problem is that the Israelis acted shortsightedly and out of paranoia. The Netanyahu Admin. rather than try to work with PA reacted heavy handidly and collectively against all Palestinians. That destroyed any sense of trust along with it the possibility of building a successful Palestinian economy.
