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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/11/middle-east-obama-peace
Can the U.S. Revive the Middle East Peace Process?
[Guardian-UK] Benny Morris - President Obama's efforts to revive the Middle East peace process are bound to fail because of the unbridgeable divide separating Israel's and Palestine's political goals. The major problem is that the two-headed Palestinian national movement is averse to sharing Palestine with the Jews and endorsing a solution based on two states for two peoples. Hamas, which won the Palestinian national elections in 2006, assures the believers that "Islam will destroy Israel." It repeatedly compares Israel to the medieval Crusader kingdoms and states that its end will be identical. Fatah's head, Mahmoud Abbas, in effect continues to promote the same rejectionist message. He publicly hails, to propitiate Washington, "the two-state solution," but when pressed declines to endorse it. Yes, one state for Palestinian Arabs and another for whoever lives in Israel, but not a "Jewish state." He seems to be hoping that Israel's 20% Arab minority will overtake the Jews demographically; or that Israel will accede to Palestinian demands to allow the return of refugees, turning Israel into an Arab-majority state.