Abe, you make it sound like it is solely due to the Arabs that there is no current peace process in place.
Well it is. The Camp David two-state solution was rejected by Arafat, even all the Arab states recognised this as a betrayal of the peace process. Though in all fairness the Palestinian people had been feed so much propaganda they probably wouldn’t have accepted it and if it went ahead Hamas would now be in control over all Palestinian lands. The Oslo Accords were then ruined by Arafat’s launching of the suicide bombing campaign in 2001. A campaign that was only stopped by the IDF and the Separation Barrier. It’s the Arabs launching attacks on Israel that is the problem.
In the 1970's the Palestinians did try to make peace but this was a period when Israel refused to negotiate at all as it was hoping that the Palestinian problem would just go way but it didn't.
That’s totally false. In the 1970s the PLO launched attack after attack on Israel and on Jordan and Lebanon in response to peace efforts.
The peace process is currently dead as a door nail not because the Arabs have ambitions to destroy Israel but because Israel continues to build settlements on land that it doesn't own and illegally occupies and due to the fact that Hamas and Fatah can't seem to agree on most things. Israel has to choose whether it wants land or whether it wants peace it can't have both - and the Palestinians need to get their house in order.
That’s not true in the slightest. The settlements are no obstacle to peace and have not been so in the 70s, 80s and 90s and certainly aren’t now. The settlements are Israel’s way of pushing the Arabs to peace. It’s the only leverage they have to motivate the Arabs to settle their desire to give up what they don’t have (1948 borders of Israel) and settle on what they can have (Gaza and West Bank).
Israel will dismantle most of the settlements in return for peace. Some territory from the West Bank they will insist on keeping but the Arabs are aware of these and understand it. One can’t expect them to give up Latrun and Ariel the roads to Jerusalem.
The actual stumbling block is Old city of Jerusalem and east Jerusalem as to who has territorial control. That and the Arab street accepting a peace deal. Though after the last 10 years most reports indicate that the West Bank population is far more accepting of the idea of peace than they were before.
What Arab states today want to 'destroy' Israel - it's not 1948 or 1967 anymore.
Well even Egypt does. While all of them have given up the direct assault option most of the Arab states and certainly the Palestinians and the non Arab Iranians have significant plans to destroy Israel. All of their state propaganda is vicilously anti Jewish and anti Israeli. The Egyptian Army does nothing but plan to fight Israel, Syrian army used to until more immediate worries. Hezbollah, Hamas are all configured to destroy Israel. The Palestinian street is still obsessed with destruction of Israel and think that they can do it.
The Arab states are more concerned about regime survival, keeping their citizen's in check and safeguarding their wealth. Arab states like Saudi and Jordan are more concerned and insecure about other Arab states than they are with Israel - and it has been this way for a long time.
Sure and these states have never been part of major push to destroy Israel. It’s the nationalist and now Islamic regimes that have been out to destroy the Israelis. The only thing that has changed is the balance of power making a direct conventional military option almost unthinkable. Otherwise its still game on.
