Gaza must pay

Over time we'll see if the Vine agrees with you

I guess it will be interesting to see where people in the community stand. It doesn't change the fact that pragmatic arguments can stand on their own. I don't see arguments calling for the end of the Israel state as intrinsically immoral. A one state solution that calls for minority rights and religious freedom sounds moral. Not practical sure, but not immoral. Do people by virtue of a shared identity suddenly posses the moral right to violate others? Is one more or less moral and who decides? Moral values also shift by culture making them even more unreliable. I can't say that morality never comes into it, but I steer clear of it when I can.

The Arab world in general and Palestinians in particular are opposed to the existence of what they see as a Jewish state in the middle east on religious and ideological grounds

I can't tell you what is in the hearts and minds of such a diverse group of people, but what no one knows is how they would feel if international law were enforced. The colonization of the West Bank is such a clear breach of international law and destructive to Palestinian society that reasonable compromise is almost impossible. There has to be a just foundation (removal of colonies) before real progress can take place. Most importantly, if Israel can make up the terms of right and wrong as it goes along, there will never be peace. If international law is effectively irrelevant, history demonstrates that the powerful will act with impunity against the less powerful. It is the mentality of the state and in Israel this takes significant meaning. They have their biblically inspired fanatics too....and they are no less vicious than some Muslim extremists.

entirely irrespective of any actions that state does or doesn't take

This is a rather Orientalist and racist statement separating Arab communities from rationality. I hope you don't really mean that.

Returning the occupied territories would not lead to peace. That would require all of Israel to become the State of Palestine.

Not at all. It just means pulling back to the 67 borders to live in the most developed and arable land in accordance with resolution 242. For anyone else interested, go to google earth and just look at the land of Israel and what's left of Palestine. The contrast is rather informative.

You obviously don't think Hamas and their supporters really mean it when they call for the destruction of Israel.

I'm sure that there are people in Fatah and Hamas that will not accept anything but the removal of Israel, but there are also Israelis who belive Jordan should be incorporated into "greater Israel." Everybody has their kooks but we shouldn't ignore what's really going on. Hamas has done what many other religious groups with inflexible positions have done when faced with actual politics….they moderate and change. For one example you can look at the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan in 1993. Another is Hizbollah in Lebanon more recently. We know Hamas was about to change positions because they were talking with Fatah to do just that. If you want to point at a charter and ignore reality, I can't stop you.

but you would only allow for the realization of some nationalisms?

Anyone can base their nationalism on anything. Just because one collective identity claims their state is defined by an ethnicity they are not automatically entitled to a special moral status for the mere reason of making that claim. In fact, to do so seems to me anti-Semitic since those people must then be somehow different from the whole of humanity. I'm not a fan of any state based on ethnicity or religion since this inherently precludes those outside of the state's accepted criteria from enjoying equal protection and due process. It's called discrimination and it that sucks. To suggest that Israel move beyond these limitations and end the "Jewish State" it in no way destroys the Jewish people. The same is true for calling on the Iranian Republic to end the "Shia State."

Thanks for the links and your positive feedback. I'm going to work harder to present this dimension of conflict in future articles.