I believe in the inalienable right of all Jews to participate in the development of Eretz Yisroel. After centuries of pogroms, discrimination and marginalisation by Christians in the West, survival has often been the highest priority for European Jews. Persecution in Muslim countries was rarely as severe or frequent. Some of the greatest flourishing of Jewish thought was under Muslim rule (eg. Marmonides in Egypt). Yet modern Israel survives and advances despite both large and small skirmishes with its neighbours.
Many commentators have expressed the view that the continued survival and prosperity of Israel long-term is inextricably linked to a genuine and enduring peace with the Palestinians, co-custodians of the Holy Land today. With the current instability across the Middle East, Palestine could become the very model of a modern Arab state.
The citizens of the region should make these decisions themselves and it may be unfair and inappropriate for outsiders to take positions on the various options, just as we do not expect to be dictated to by outsiders on policy matters affecting Australians. One can and should still sympathise with both Sabra and Palestinian families in Eretz Yisroel. And we should never take our own political freedoms and prosperity for granted in the hope that others can aspire to the same.
[with apologies to the Druze, Samaritans, Palestinian Jews and Christians for my simplification in my own feelings on these issues]
