Is Israel a secular or religious state?

Why palestinian arabs will never agree to any Israel proposal about the "palestinian state", except one?

• For already more than 60 years we listen to the moaning of the Palestinian Arabs about how they want “ A State”, but some evil forces and force major factors , such as Israel, USA, European “right-wing”, “Montreal Canadians” failure in the NHL hockey cup, and the Tsunami in Indonesia make this “Palestinian golden dream” impossible when the Palestinian Arabs are just a step from it. Have you noticed that the Palestinian Arabs put such conditions on which they would agree to accept this “State” about which they, supposedly, dream days and nights which, they know for sure, will NEVER be accepted by Israel? Which country in the world would agree to accept 4,000,000 persons who say their goal is to kill as many people of this country as possible? And Arabs insist that Israel accept 4,000,000 (FOUR MILLION!) of such persons. What, the leaders of the Palestinian Arabs, after 20 years of negotiations with their Israeli counterparts, have not understood yet that that Israel will never agree to this? They understand it perfectly well. Then, why do they insist on this item? Because the truth is they do not want this famous “Palestinian state” . What is really funny: as soon as Israel agrees on something which makes the perspective of the “Palestinian state” quite realistic, the Palestinian Arabs immediately invent something which would again make it “ A Golden Dream”. Barak offered to Arafat 97% of the territory of Judea and Samaria. Arafat said “no, 100% or nothing” - and the “Palestinian state” went on being a ”A Golden Dream”. And what, a Palestinian State could not be formed without these 3%? What´s there on these 3% of sand? Golden mines? There is not even water! But all of a sudden, Israel said: ok, we shall give you more land than you pretend , in exchange for these 3%. Deal? This offer which could convert the project “Palestinian State” in reality scared the Palestinian leaders so much that they started the Intifada AlAqsa , the “Palestinian state” remained ”A Golden Dream”, and the Palestinian leaders routinely blamed “the evil forces who do not want peace.”. In the last two years, the situation n the West Bank has improved to such an extent that the experts started to talk about the “ Palestinian economic wonder” . Israel rooted out the Hamas cells there and created the conditions (supplies of fuel at the prices 15% below the prices the Israeli companies receive it, special privileges in Customs Duties, direct aid to the West Bank companies, and many others) which permitted the Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank to enjoy the life standards pretty higher than those in the neighbouring Arab states. After that, the Israelis asked: well, guys, don´t you want to get at last off our necks and create , at last, this “Palestinian State” in the West Bank? The reaction of the Palestinian Arabs was immediate: they said that they would agree to create this state, only if it´s capital would be the East Jerusalem. Let´s suppose that the American Indians , all of a sudden, start claiming their “State” on the U.S. territory. Let´s suppose that the Americans, in a sudden attack of the collective madness, agreed to talk about this and offered to the Indians MORE land than these Indians claimed. And then, the Indians would say: no, we agree to accept this State, only if its capital will be in Bronx and Queens, and besides, the Americans will not have the right to live there. You are laughing? But Israel, all of a sudden, took this quite seriously- and offered to talk. This was a very unpleasant surprise for Abbas and his team, they simply did not expect that Israel would agree to talk about Jerusalem at all. But they immediately found the way how to continue with the “Golden Dream” : at its Six General Conference, Fatah declared that they will agree on the “Palestinian State” only if ALL Jerusalem will be the capital of this “State”. Continuing with our analogy, it´s the same as Indians would say: no, now we do not want only Bronx and Queens, we want ALL of New York, together with Manhattan, Staten Island, Brooklyn, Statue of Liberty- and Fifth Avenue. And, to block any attempt on Israel´s part to offer something else, Fatah again got back to the “four millions of the Palestinian refugees”, which Israel should accept. Damn it, create your state- and accept all the refugees you want! No, the Palestinian leaders do not agree, they say that ISRAEL must accept them- and allocate them within HER borders. Of course, after this, the “Palestinian State” now looks further than Venus, and the Palestinian leaders with a breath of relief, continue receiving the Western diplomats , again, between two cups of champagne, blaming ““the evil forces who do not want peace”. The question we should ask is not IF the Palestinians want or not to have their own State- they do not want it, it´s evident and there is nothing to talk about- but WHY they do not want it .

• Answer:

  "Barak offered to Arafat 97% of the territory of Judea and Samaria. Arafat said 'no, 100% or nothing'": This is exactly my point, Y.K. There has to be a compromise! In any peace talks, there's give and take. Neither side can be unyielding. The Jerusalem issue cuts deep. It's such an important city to the Jews. I was thinking about this very thing today, and came across this website: http://islam.about.com/od/jerusalem/a/quds.htm This website explains that Jerusalem is important in Islam. It's also important in Christianity. But of course, first it belonged to the Jews. So, what is the solution regarding that? To share it? By the way, I like your analogy of the Native Americans in the States.