I think that any discussion of the Arab-Israeli conflict has to start with the recognition that if the Arabs laid down their arms, there would be peace in the region, while if the Israelis laid down their arms, they would all be dead.

Clearly what the Palestinians have been doing is not working, and Israel will never lay down its arms. The interests of the Palestinians have been continuously betrayed both from without and within: the other Islamic nations in the region have obvious use for the continued suffering of Palestine, and, rather than offering its people succor or wise counsel, they prefer to fan the flames of resentment, for reasons that are obvious enough.

The Palestinians must realize that, holding no cards other than the spectacular abjectness of their misery and their inequality against the superior might of Israel — all of which are plainly evident to a watching world — their only choices are either to cool their blood or to continue to see it run in their streets. Their protracted “martyrdom” serves only the ends of the regional players who use them as their pawns. Peace will be met with peace.

But it is critical that the Israelis must be made aware that the good will of the West, and of America in particular, is imperiled by right-wing settlement-building, a deliberately insulting gesture of ostentatious overlordship, and one that plays perfectly into the hands of Islamic extremists.

I think that any discussion of the Arab-Israeli conflict has to start with the recognition that if the Arabs laid down their arms, there would be peace in the region, while if the Israelis laid down their arms, they would all be dead. Israel has very legitimate security concerns, which are not going to vanish regardless of what the Palestinians do. The only means to some kind of reasonable outcome is a lengthy period of time with diminishing violence, where the Israelis are able to have some confidence in their security.

The Palestinians have a weak hand, both because they have no meaningful leverage and because they lack a strong leadership. In the best of all possible worlds, Hamas would disappear and there would be a gradual rapprochement between Israel and a moderate Palestinian leadership, culminating in an independent Palestinian state. The would be a slow, two-steps-forward-and-one-step-back process, but I don’t see any other alternative to a continuation of the status quo.