What I find most bizarre about the middle east "peace" process is that it is it is still so obsessed with land and historic territorial claims. It assumes that Palestinians just want to return to their ancestral land and resume a pastoral lifestyle herding goats, but it ought to be obvious that many changes are irreversible and not all to do with Israel. In the sixty odd years since Israel was formed the entire world has urbanized. People have moved away from the family farm in droves and moved to cities, where they live in apartments or small houses and often own none of it.
City dwellers need jobs, not land. Israel has the only successful, diversified economy in the region, and can offer high standards of social welfare and education, with democratic rights and freedoms thrown in. It shouldn't surprise that many Palestinians would prefer access these things, even if it meant moving to Israel. The Palestinian leadership ought to be negotiating for closer economic integration, rather than land, while Israel's underlying need is security. Land could help provide a feeling of security, but having educated, well-off neighbours who didn't want to eliminate you might be more important for real security.
Of course retrograde religious elements will make anyone offering territorial concessions (on either side) look to be capitulating, but perhaps the majority might prefer to get on with living their lives in the modern world in exchange for their claim to their piece of the family farm?
