Starting me out with a softball? Okay. Palestine is not a parliamentary system like the Germany or Israel, it is a presidential system like the USA. The Palestinian legislature is an entirely domestically focused institution. It does not control negotiations with Israel. It does not control foreign policy. It does not control the armed forces of Palestine. It controls things like the budget, corruption, land reform, taxes, etc. The Presidency controls all the things that we in the international community care about. Abbas won the presidency. Hamas won the legislature (according to every international observer, corruption was the primary focus of the legislative elections).
I'm so very glad you agreed with me. The PLC is not like parliaments. It has the "power of the purse" though, with budgets. Hamas boycotted the presidential election, but won the legislature. The same legislature, of course, controls public and internal security. Do you really think having a terrorist group in charge of security was going to help Israel? Really?
But ignoring even that, I see you didn't point to the fact that Haniyeh would win an election now over Abbas. Which is convenient. Just look at the numbers:
If new presidential elections are held today and only two were nominated, Ismail Haniyeh and Mahmoud Abbas, the former would win a majority of 53% (compared to 55% three months ago) and the latter 42% (compared to 38% three months ago). In the Gaza Strip, Abbas receives 44% and Haniyeh 54%. In the West Bank, Abbas receives 41% and Haniyeh 53%.
Go figure.
Also the unity government didn't expire. The process of the PA taking control over Gaza from Hamas has stalled in recent weeks, but the agreement hasn't been cancelled.
Takes two to be partner to a unity government. Hamas insists it expired, meaning it's over.
The PLO/PA didn't recognize Israel, agree to a two state solution, or renounce violence until the Oslo Accords, so referring to events before then is sort of besides the point.
The point is that you said that the majority of the conflict has been settlements. The conflict existed before settlements. That's what I pointed out.
Israel wants the Palestinians to renounce violence. Thats what they did
Really? The government they want to elect today and the one they elected to the legislature renounced violence? The one in control of the Gaza strip? The one leading a group that would, according to the poll I posted above, supports sending rockets into Israel to the tune of 77%? Good to know.
You can't cite events before they renounced violence as evidence that they aren't renouncing violence
That wasn't what I was implying, but even the PLO never renounced violence. The Palestine Papers show that they kept the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade as their military wing (the ones they could pay, anyways) and were paying them during the Second Intifada. They just hid their ties to violence. Karine A incident showed that.
If you do that then you are leaving no opportunity for peace to ever exist between the Palestinians and Israel. Under this logic there would never have been peace between Egypt and Israel or between Jordan and Israel.
You ignored or misunderstood my point to make more incorrect points. This isn't going well for you.
I dressed this point earlier and showed why its completely wrong. Also about your link, the way they asked the question was very misleading. They asked, 'would you support accepting a two state solution in exchange for ending the occupation in the west bank and gaza', which obviously they would not accept, because the Palestinians have see East Jerusalem as being one third of their country.
Seriously? Then why, when told "What would you want to do if the Palestinian government negotiated a two state solution" did they say "That would be part of a 'program of stages' to liberate all of historic Palestine later"?
Did you even read the damn poll?
If you ask them whether they support a comprehensive two state solution like the Arab Peace Initiative then the majority say yes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Peace_Initiative#Palestinian_reactions and so do most Israelis by the way http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Poll-Most-Israelis-back-Arab-Peace-Initiative-314594
What none of your poll asks is what comes next. My poll does. Even if a two state solution were enacted, a general one, according to the question, with unspecified bounds, the Palestinians wanted to reclaim all of Palestine. Remove Israel from the map, in short. By the way, the last poll Wiki cites is 2009. You're going to have to do better than that. Though of course they're going to want to support the API, it's capitulating to every single demand they have.