If you said "Some Israelis and the CURRENT Israeli government" you would be more correct.
Vast majority of Israeli's and current government. Show me one/or every government in Israel's history which didn't believe that.
Also, even if someone believes he has god-given rights to something, he may realize the impractibility of the idea,
and value other things (like real peace) more.
Absolutely not, the 'idea' is no 'idea'. It is a reality and Israeli policy achieved through brute force and the US blocks Israel from being held accountable from 131 UN resolutions condemning Israel's illegal activities. So the US political cover makes them even more considerate of that 'idea'.
The key to the whole thing is the status of Jerusalem, and before that nut is cracked there will be no peace,
Jerusalem isn't complicated. The international world supports East Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital. Israel is alone in rejecting that.
The two state solution with UN control over Jerusalem is the ONLY way forward in my opinion.
Israel opposes that, it views Jerusalem as its capital in theory.
So much bla bla bla cant change the fact: .
If everything is 'blah blah blah' then leave this discussion. There's nothing 'blah' about presenting the facts. And you have no response to those relevant important facts. So I will leave it for the viewers.
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Israeli academic Tanya Reinhart wrote a July 2001 article in Yediot Aharonot, addressing the “massive propaganda about the far reaching concessions which Barak supposedly offered and which the Palestinians rejected.” Reinhart asserted:
“The only clear element of Barak’s plan in Camp David was the immediate annexation by Israel of about 10 percent of the West Bank land. These include the settlement blocks which are close to the center of Israel and in which there are already over 150,000 Israeli settlers. But the bigger fraud of Barak’s plan, which has not received any attention in the public debate, is the fate of the rest of the 90 percent which were supposedly designated to belong to the “Palestinian state”. The situation in these areas is easily visible today: These lands are cut up by 37 isolated settlements which were purposely built in the midst of the Palestinian population to enable future Israeli control of these areas. As a result, 2 million Palestinians are crowded in enclaves which consist of about 50 percent of the West Bank, and the other 40 percents are blocked by the defense array of some 40,000 settlers. As always, unofficial rumors were spread in the media that Israel intends to evacuate these areas in some future. But all relevant government offices clarified repeatedly that no plan is being prepared for the evacuation of even a single settlement. First, the Palestinians need to prove that our imposed arrangements work, and then we will of course discuss and consider.”
Source: “Out now! A simple and human step,” by Tanya Reinhart, Yediot Aharonot, 8 July 2001. Originally in Hebrew.
Perhaps the most significant rebuttal of the “generosity” myth was another 8 July 2001 article, this time in the New York Times. Robert Malley, special assistant for Arab-Israeli affairs to President Bill Clinton from 1998 to 2001 and a member of the American peace team at Camp David, identified three “fictions” about the Palestinian failure at Camp David. The latter two of these are highly relevant to the generosity misperception:
Myth 2: Israel’s offer met most if not all of the Palestinians’ legitimate aspirations.
Yes, what was put on the table was more far-reaching than anything any Israeli leader had discussed in the past — whether with the Palestinians or with Washington. But it was not the dream offer it has been made out to be, at least not from a Palestinian perspective.
To accommodate the settlers, Israel was to annex 9 percent of the West Bank; in exchange, the new Palestinian state would be granted sovereignty over parts of Israel proper, equivalent to one-ninth of the annexed land. A Palestinian state covering 91 percent of the West Bank and Gaza was more than most Americans or Israelis had thought possible, but how would Mr. Arafat explain the unfavorable 9-to-1 ratio in land swaps to his people?
In Jerusalem, Palestine would have been given sovereignty over many Arab neighborhoods of the eastern half and over the Muslim and Christian quarters of the Old City. While it would enjoy custody over the Haram al Sharif, the location of the third-holiest Muslim shrine, Israel would exercise overall sovereignty over this area, known to Jews as the Temple Mount. This, too, was far more than had been thinkable only a few weeks earlier, and a very difficult proposition for the Israeli people to accept. But how could Mr. Arafat have justified to his people that Israel would retain sovereignty over some Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, let alone over the Haram al Sharif? As for the future of refugees — for many Palestinians, the heart of the matter — the ideas put forward at Camp David spoke vaguely of a “satisfactory solution,” leading Mr. Arafat to fear that he would be asked to swallow an unacceptable last-minute proposal.
Source: “
Fictions About the Failure at Camp David,” by Robert Malley, New York Times, 8 July 2001. Accessing article may require registration.
When promoting the Barak ‘generosity’ myth, few seem to consider the profound Palestinian generosity of its own ‘offer’ throughout the peace process since its beginnings at the Madrid talks. In calling for an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza, there is an implicit forsaking of Palestinian soverignty to the parts of 1948 Palestine that lie outside these two areas. Expressed more bluntly, Palestinians have been explicitly negotiating — for a decade now — for a state in just one-quarter of their historic homeland:
Myth 3: The Palestinians made no concession of their own.
Many have come to believe that the Palestinians’ rejection of the Camp David ideas exposed an underlying rejection of Israel’s right to exist. But consider the facts: The Palestinians were arguing for the creation of a Palestinian state based on the June 4, 1967, borders, living alongside Israel. They accepted the notion of Israeli annexation of West Bank territory to accommodate settlement blocs. They accepted the principle of Israeli sovereignty over the Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem — neighborhoods that were not part of Israel before the Six Day War in 1967. And, while they insisted on recognition of the refugees’ right of return, they agreed that it should be implemented in a manner that protected Israel’s demographic and security interests by limiting the number of returnees. No other Arab party that has negotiated with Israel — not Anwar el- Sadat’s Egypt, not King Hussein’s Jordan, let alone Hafez al-Assad’s Syria — ever came close to even considering such compromises.
Source: “
Fictions About the Failure at Camp David,” by Robert Malley, New York Times, 8 July 2001. Accessing article may require registration.
To conclude, the actual amount of land in Israel’s offer was far from “generous” in Palestinian eyes, its implementation would have compounded the current problems with freedom of movement, and it also did not meet the minimum requirements of UN Security Council Resolutions or international legal precepts concerning the disposition of territories occupied during war. For more information on this last point, see How Oslo promoted human rights violations on this site.
Misrepresentation of Barak's offer at Camp David as "generous" and "unprecedented" | The Electronic Intifada
