Israel too cannot be exculpated
Reader comment on item: The Palestinian-Israeli War: Where It Came From, and How to End It

Submitted by Dr. Jonathan D. Safren (Israel), Mar 23, 2006 at 04:30

Though the onus of responsibility lies, in my opinion, with the Palestinians, Israel does share some of the burden for the failure.

1) Israel at the time thought that autonomy would be more or less permanent; it had not yet gotten around to the idea that there would eventually be a Palestinian state. This was not internalized until the second intifada.
2) The settlement enterprise continued unchecked, even under Labor governments. I believe terror would have continued even without this fact, but the expansion of old settlements and the construction of new ones certainly did nothing to alleviate Palestinian bitterness.

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