Begin offered Palestinians nothing beyond "autonomy", which, as the experience of the PA- which did everything the Israeli government ever asked of it and got nothing but reoccupation by the IDF for its troubles- amply demonstrates, was an offer of nothing at all but being perceived, within the Palestinian political dynamic, as a helpless, pathetic lackey of the Israeli government.

The PLO was offering a two-state peace from the 1970s on, but Likud and Labor as well repeatedly said no to- often, over the meaningless distinction of whether it recognized Israel at the moment the talks started or before- a dist8nction that was of no practical distinction whatsoever. Shsmir or Sharon should just have worked with Arafat in the 1980s, when he was at the peak of his power, could have enforced any deal- so long as it was not made to look as though he'd been humiliated and made to play the role of the vanquished leader- and st a time when Hamas was not yet a political force. But they wouldn't let it happen.

This is a land dispute, not a campaign to wipe out Jews, and the only way to end it is work out a face-saving compromise, and abandon the worthless, arrogant fixation with "victory" in the extinct European sense.