Well, I think the difference between us on the point is that I'm doing my best to take into account how they feel and why they feel it as I weigh this situation.
Whereas when you talk about recognising the legitimacy of the people who stole your land and asking them for a job where you can earn enough money to buy it back, it‘s painfully clear that you aren't.
Again, the only question you need to ask is if you would be happy to accept the “solutions” you’re suggesting if you were in their place. If not, then what business do you have suggesting that they do it? Especially when you seem to have given absolutely no thought to what Israel could and should be doing to ameliorate this situation. And especially when the theft of land is just one of many absolutely legitimate grievances the people of Palestine have with Israel.
The point you and so many others seem to be overlooking is that the current circumstances aren't the result of some geological process or an act of God. They're not irrevocable or necessary. Israel can stop committing its crimes at any moment it chooses. And if it does so, if it shows the slightest degree of reasonableness itself, as the aggressor, then we can have a conversation about Palestinians being reasonable.
Because no, absolutely not, the path to better conditions is not the normalisation of relations. At least, not under the current status quo. The path to better conditions is that Israel follows international law. If Israel had done that a few dacedes ago, Hamas would never have existed (in fact, if Israel weren't so hellbent on destabilising a peaceful solution that they funded Hamas at its inception, Hamas wouldn't exist. But that's maybe a story for another time).
The solution you guys always present as "reasonable" is actually just total capitulation to a cruel and extremist invading force. It's insane. Tell me you'd accept this if somebody stole your home or killed your family. Tell me, if China or Iran, say, successfully invaded your home state and subjected you to years of dehumanisation you'd embrace “normalisation.” Tell me you wouldn't expect the government to fight back on your behalf. Tell me you’d accept the invasion because the other guy was bigger, or because the British empire decreed that your home was now part of somebody else’s newly-formed country.
I don’t think you can. And even if you can tell me that, I don't blame the Palestinians for refusing to emulate that cowardice.
