That is the status quo, so no it is not giving anything away. The Palestinians do not have that land, the settlers do. If anything, they are giving up some sort of right or claim to that land, an abstraction, not the land itself, which the Israelis already have. If that is your point of view, then the parcel of land I am sitting on really belongs to either some NA tribe, or Mexico. Four million Palestinians were not kicked out of their homes. Four million is the number they get when the use the special definition that only applies to PALESTINIAN REFUGEES which takes the standard definition of refugee (someone that was forced out of their home) and tacks on ALL OF THEIR DECENDENTS. Most of the true refugees are dead or will be dying in the next decade or so, as they left their homes during a war that took place around the end of WW2. The UN decided to create a special agency just to deal with Palestinian refugees, called the UNRWA . This agency was the one that made the decision to give refugee status to decendents of refugees, counter to the definition used by the UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency, as per their website). Really, less than 1 million people fled their homes, most because the incoming Arab armies told them to get out of the way, and many of them are gone. There is a reason that the average Palestinian "Refugee" is younger than the event which caused them to "flee their home". If you were not born in a country, you really can't expect the right to "return" to that country. That doesn't even address the issue of the Jewish refugees that were forcibly expelled from the Arab nations and had all of their property confiscated. They were approximately equal in number to the total number of Palestinians who left Israel (not forcibly expelled, BTW, but told to leave in anticipation of a swift victory by a coalition of Arab states).They were generally just resettled in Israel, something that the Arab world should have done with the Palestinians about 50 years ago. The Palestinian refugees are forced to remain in camps by their Arab neighbors because they are a useful tool to portray Israel in a negative light. Maybe I am not the one that needs the history lesson.
They have their claim to East Jerusalem to give, which you could have taken from my original post. They get all of land occupied by the settlers, and they lose the piece of Jerusalem that they have been clinging to. Anyway, as I said, those portions are not critical to the immediate problem because they can be handled after the violence has been stopped.
But they shouldn't have to give up East Jerusalem. Those settlements are illegal, and shouldn't be seen as Israel giving them up, but Israel doing the right thing. Again you wouldn't tell the black South Africans during Apartheid that they should give up any hope of Johannesburg. That wouldn't be right, and neither would this. I also disagree that they should be handled after violence stops. Palestinian terrorists should not be allowed to interfere with Palestinian statehood. Palestinian stathood with at least part of Jerusalem as its capitol should be negotiated immediately. By allowing terrorists to determine when and if that happens, they are allowing the terrorists control. The terrorists should not have say. What should be done is that both sides should say to the terrorists, we are going to go forward with setting up the Palestinian state, and you guys are out of the equation. You terrorists have no say in how we proceed or if we proceed. The issue will be resolved without you, and you will be hunted down and wiped out. Why give the terrorists power over what happens? The more seperate the issues of statehood and Palestinian statehood are the better. This does a number of things. It gives the terrorists less incentive to continue, especially if they try another bombing and the move toward statehood goes on without them. It also gets rid of the idea that Palestinians are being rewarded for using terrorist tactics, since the two issues are completely seperated. In the eyes of non-violent Palestinians who might support terrorist activities, it would make the terrorists seem more of an annoyance than fighters for good, since the good was happening in spite of what the terrorists did. In addition as those groups working toward statehood actually make progress toward an agreement, they will be the heroes, and the ones that are effective. All of these things will help provide less incentive for terrorists to continue. Their numbers will shrink, and wiping out the few that are left will be easier. Of course the whole time they are moving toward Palestinian statehood Abbas, and Israel in a less visible way should continue going after terrorists groups. Already Hamas and Islamic Jihad have agreed to a truece, and Israel put a hold on its offensive into Gaza, in part because at least Hamas is starting to smell which way the wind is blowing. The parties involved should continue in this direction even more.
