I have read them and by all intents and purposes Israel gave a more than fair offer.
At camp David, the Israelis offered Palestinians a reasonable compromise on pretty much everything - giving them the entire territory of Gaza and something like 90% of West Bank, limited right of return for Palestinian refugees, dismantlement of majority of Israeli settlements etc. - only to have Arafat refuse it all in the end because of the status of East Jerusalem. The problem is that Palestine doesn’t want to concede anything.
To understand the Palestinians you have to understand their mindset. Based on their current situation, their ideology hasn’t changed. They only desire the elimination of Israel and to kill every last Jew.
“Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion.”
- Haj Amin al-Husseini, Mufti of Jerusalem
(Radio Berlin, March 1, 1944; quoted in Robert Wistrich, Muslim Anti-Semitism: A Clear and Present Danger [American Jewish Committee, 2002], p. 47)
“If the Jewish state becomes a fact, and this is realized by the Arab peoples, they will drive the Jews who live in their midst into the sea… Even if we are beaten now in Palestine, we will never submit. We will never accept the Jewish state... But for politics, the Egyptian army alone, or volunteers of the Muslim Brotherhood, could have destroyed the Jews.”
- Hassan al-Banna, Muslim Brotherhood founder
(New York Times, August 2, 1948)
“If the refugees return to Israel – Israel will cease to exist.”
- Gamal Abdel Nasser
(Zuercher Woche, West Germany, September 1, 1961; quoted in Harris O. Schoenberg, A Mandate for Terror: The United Nations and the PLO [Shapolsky Books, 1989], p. 239)
“We shall destroy Israel and those behind Israel.”
- General Tahar Zbiri, Algerian Chief of Staff
(New York Times, May 28, 1967)
“Peace for us means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all-out war, a war which will last for generations… We shall not rest until the day when we return to our home, and until we destroy Israel.”
- Yasser Arafat
(El Mundo, Venezuela, February 11, 1980; The Times, UK, August 5, 1980)
“Without any doubt the PLO is entirely in agreement with the [Fatah] resolution… We wish at any price to liquidate the State of Israel.”
- Ibrahim Souss, PLO representative
(Europe No. 1 Radio, France, June 16, 1980; The Times, UK, August 5, 1980)
“The Prophet of Allah… says: ‘The Last Hour would not come until the Muslims fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them, and until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim or Servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him…’” (Article 7); “They are behind the French Revolution, the Communist Revolution and most of the revolutions here and there which we have heard of and are hearing of. With wealth they formed secret organizations throughout the world to destroy societies and promote the Zionist cause; these organizations included the Freemasons, the Rotary and Lions clubs, and others... They are behind the First World War… They are behind the Second World War…” (Article 22); “the Zionist plan has no bounds, and after Palestine they wish to expand from the Nile River to the Euphrates… such is their plan in the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion” (Article 32).
- Hamas Covenant
(Gaza, August 18, 1988; reprinted in Journal of Palestine Studies, Summer 1993, pp. 122-34)
“It is an open war until the elimination of Israel and until the death of the last Jew on earth.”
- Hezbollah statement, issued under Islamic Jihad alias
(United Press International, March 24, 1992)
“If they [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.”
- Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah leader
(Daily Star, Lebanon, October 23, 2002)
“Oh Allah, vanquish the Jews and their supporters. Oh Allah, vanquish the Americans and their supporters. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them all, down to the very last one.”
- Ahmad Bahr, Palestinian Legislative Council acting speaker
(Sudan TV, April 13, 2007)
“The Prophet of Allah has promised us that the Jews will gather in Palestine, and that the Muslims will fight them, and totally kill them.”
- Muhammad Nimr al-Zaghmout, head of the Palestinian Islamic Council in Lebanon
(Al-Kawthar TV, May 15, 2007)
“By Allah, we will not be satisfied even if all the Jews are killed.”
- Dr. Walid Al-Rashudi, Department of Islamic Studies, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
(Al-Aqsa TV, February 29, 2008)
“The PLO... has not changed its platform even one iota... the Israeli ideology will collapse in its entirety, and we will begin to progress with our own ideology, Allah willing, and drive them out of all of Palestine.”
- Abbas Zaki, Palestinian Authority representative in Lebanon
(NBN TV, April 9, 2008)
Short history of the conflict:
Answer (1 of 109): The Palestinians did not “refuse” the two state solution; in fact, just a few months later, at Taba in Egypt, the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators worked out a deal that was actually acceptable to the Palestinians. By then, however, it was too late; the second Intifada had s...
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