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"If you believe that neither violent nor peaceful means will lead to a Palestinian state what do you envision for the future of the region?"
I think Israel will continue to expand and to oppress the Palestinians, killing, injuring and dispossessing large numbers of innocent civilians and impoverishing the rest, that rockets will continue to fall on Israel, killing a small but non-zero number of innocent civilians but not having that great an effect on life for most Israelis, and that the international community will continue to stand by and wring its hands.
"Presuming you feel the status quo is unacceptable, what do you feel would be the best way to bring about change?"
For whom to bring about change? If I were allowed to control the actions of all of the participants at once, I could make the Israelis and the Palestinians love one another and share a state and scones and stop being so silly, and the issue would be over. Assuming that I were allowed to "dictate the moves" of any one participant, and that all the others would react to those moves as they are likely to do:
:-Israel can have a just peace any time it wants, for the asking, if it's willing to end the occupation. If I were playing "Israel", I would withdraw to the Green Line, offer compensation and "return" to the no-longer-occupied territories to Palestinian refugees but not a right of return to Israel, and support and encourage democratic elections among the Palestinians; I would make it clear that if the Palestinian state did not take serious measures to prevent violence against Israel, I wold reinvade it. However, in practice, the moment any Israeli government proposed these moves, it would be voted out of office rapidly, so if I were just playing "The government of Israel", I would do something similar but more circumspectly - probably with secret negotiations beforehand.
:-The US may be able to force peace. If I were playing "The US", I would throw my weight behind and economic and cultural boycott of Israel until it took the steps detailed above, as was done with South Africa. If I were playing "The president of the US", I would attempt something similar, and hope I had enough political capital to force it through, although without much optimism.
:-There is no way the Palestinians can achieve peace. The best they can hope for is that if they stop resorting to violence, Israel will take some of the edge off the occupation and leave them some of their own land. I don't see any course of action that they can take that is likely to result in a viable state, however.
Incidentally, "unacceptable" is a word I hate. If I were pushed off a cliff, I might consider plunging to my death "unacceptable", but that doesn't mean I'd be able to prevent it. I think the situation in the ME is horrific, but I can't see any alternative I have to accepting it.
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