When the partition was made in 1948, two new states were created: A rather small Jewsih homeland and a much larger Arab state. Arabs living in what became Israel had the choice of remaining as non-Jewish Israelis, in a free and democratic country, the only one in the middle east, or moving a SHORT distance to Jordan and living there in an Arab state, but with fewer liberties.

Not a perfect choice, but a better one than most Arabs have had, throughout modern history and even today. Despite this, some Arabs decided simply to pretend that the partition had never taken place and that they were still living in 'Palestine', which had been occupied by a 'Zionist entity'. That mindset persists today. It's foolish and it has cost thousands of human lives on both sides, for nothing.

The lands occupied by Israel as a result of the Six-day War and the Yom Kippur War were being used as staging areas from which murderous attacks on innocent Israelis were launched. If these lands were returned tomorrow morning, they would again be used for that purpose by tomorrow afternoon. There is no purpose in fighting those two costly wars all over again.

That's why the current 'road map' is so important. I'm not optomistic. I wish I could be.