Just forget, I don't wanna start a useless debate

No problem man, let's just hope for peace for all of us :)

I know it sounds bizarre at first, but you know what would end the israel-palestine conflict?

Proper rockets for Hamas.

See, the real reason why there is still no peace between both sides is the asymmetry of the conflict. From a military point of view, there is absolutely nothing Israel has to fear. Every now and then, the palestinians may fire a rocket, but in practice, it hardly ever hurts anyone. Israeli hasbara won't fall short of claiming that the palestinians fire rockets almost daily, but the truth is that during the last several years not a single jew in israel was killed by rockets.

The palestinians have absolutely nothing to offer the israelites. One or two decades ago, suicide bombers and rockets still caused israelis enough fear so that a compromise may have been possible. But now, with Iron dome and the wall, israelis are not really afraid anymore, and thus, they're less willing than ever for a peace deal. Israeli newspaper ha'aretz had a very interesting article by a rabbi recently on the psychological obstacles for israelis to a proper peace agreement: They have the feeling that what they would loose by a peace agreement outweights what they feel they would gain.

The insane asymmetry of the conflict is very well symbolized by two pictures that were shot on the same afternoon. The location of both pictures is just a few dozen kilometers apart:

While israelis party at the beach, palestinian civilians are recovering the dead corpses of their family members from the ruins that were once their homes.

Now the paragraph above may sound like I praise suicide bombers and firing rockets. I don't. But simply condemning them is just as pointless. The truth is: Suicide bombers and firework-like rockets that cannot be targeted and hardly ever hit anything are only the weapons of the most desperate people who have absolutely no other means of fighting back.

I mean, does anyone seriously believe Hamas would fire rockets that never hit anything (or: innocent civilians) if they had they means of the israeli military? If they had a dozen of highly advanced, satellite/laser-aimed weapons, giving them the possibility of killing high-class terrorists like Netanyahu from their couch by simply watching a bomb drop on a house on a computer screen - do you seriously think they would use their precious rockets to target civilians instead?

So, as horrible as it sounds: The reaons why this conflict is still going on is not because Hamas is firing rockets, but because they are firing the wrong rockets. If all that israelis want is that the palestinians stop firing rockets at israel that might kill innocent civilians, there's an easy solution for that: Give them a couple of proper rockets, so that they have a chance to target the right people resonsible for this craziness.

It's actually quite like in the bible:

The biblical heavily-armed Goliath (who would be an israeli in present times, as he was from an area that now belongs to israeli territory) would never have simply agreed to peace with David (who would be a palestinian in present times, as he was from Bethlehem which is on palestinian territory) and his people. For with all his metal armor and his superior weaponry, what did he have to fear from a small and apparently unarmed shepherd boy?

It was one little "weapon", aimed at the right spot, that changed everything.

So: Give the palestians their own iron dome, and a few dozen high-tech missiles, and trust me: The conflict would be over in no time, probably without a single israeli civilian casualty.

It has a lot to do with taking control of the Temple Mount. Its the most holy site in Judaism and the third most in Islam. 

Totally biased against Israel. There was no such thing as Palestinians until Israeli statehood. The fact is, these folks hate Jews and want to destroy Israel. This is in Hamas's charter.  Even Egypt is destroying their tunnels.  If we really want to help the Palestinians we should advocate for the destruction of Hamas.

There are so many christian countries and countries where people speak english - if aliens/mexicans/chinese/whatever invaded and decided to take over the US and drive the residents out, would you simply say "ah, that's fine - there are so many other christian countries in the world, I'll just go there and let the aliens have their own state!" And do you seriously think the people in these other countries would happily welcome millions of homeless hungry US-americans with open arms, just because you're officially a christian (at least on paper)?

Yeeeeah, I'm sure you've double-checked that, right? What is the exact wording? "We hate jews and want to destroy israel"? Would be please be so kind as to give me a link to an authentic scan of the hamas charter?

That "It's in the Hamas charter!" argument is always quite funny. To this date, I haven't met a single person who's actually read a copy of it, but everyone knows exactly what's in it. Maybe it should better be referred to as "Protocols of the elders of Hamas"...

But yes, the elders of Hamas have most probably really written a document in which they denied israel the right to exist. So what? Who cares? That was 30 years ago, nobody is even reading that document anymore, so it has no practical relevance at all nowadays, and during these 30 years, Hamas has more than once stated that they will in fact accept the state of israel as part of a just peace deal.

This whole "Hamas denies israel the right to exist! It's in the Hamas charter from the 80s, stupid!" argument is just distracting from the fact that the actual situation is quite the other way around. There is not a single political party in the israeli Knesset advocating a palestinian state. In fact, Likud, the ruling party of Netanyahu, even specifically states the aim of preventing the existance of a palestinian state, so they are in fact denying palestine the right to exist. And this is not from some document from the 80s, it's from their manifesto in the present! Which makes the whole silly argument that "A palestinian state can only be achieved by direct negotiations with israel, not by going to the UN" all the more ridiculous.

From this I get that it is really our thought for the condition of the region today. Us Europeans fucked this area for good. Between Britain and France dividing the Middle East up after the First World War with the Balfour Declaration and the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the antisemitism of Russia, Germany and parts of Eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th century which pushed more and more Jews into what they were made to think was their homeland.

It may have been but it can't be reclaimed like they have and expect peace. It really seemed like while European always hated Jews, Arabs were welcoming them until the idea of Zionism formed. Imperialism agitated the Arabs obviously. It's like they had a concern for ending up being a minority in their own country but was put down for that. We wouldn't want mass immigration here but we somehow expected them to put up with it. Not just that but the attitude of the Jewish settlers in the inter-war people likely sparked tensions. They often came over as colonizers at that point and some of the more extreme Zionists seemed quite happy to rid Palestine altogether. They were a minority but the people who control Israel since independence seem dangerously close to having that kind of mindset.

The history is certainly interesting but this will continue if either side don't want peace and both sides don't compromise. They need some moderate leaders. I don't know about Hamas but peace won't come with people like Netanyahu on the Israeli side.

Fortunately the longer it goes the harder it will be to end. But i hope ordinary people end this once and for all because the leaders don't seem to care. (Damn theres too much to say about this topic!)

Well due to population density their weapons must be close to civilians to some degree. But in this lies some problems.

Firstly, Hamas orders people to stay in their homes, thus their deaths due to collateral damage increase. To some degree, they do use human shields so that the civilian death toll increases international pressure on Israel.

But more importantly, Hamas knows Israels military capability, especially their Iron Dome system. To even amass this aresenal of rockets with the intention of firing them......knowing they have no missile defense systems of their own, is practically condeming their own population.

I always thought their objective was to fire the cheapest rockets they can get. A "dumb" rocket can cost a mere $1000 but a Iron Dome intercept rocket is $50 000. Maybe they want to hurt Israels economy.....because I see otherwise no point in firing rockets that can be easily intercepted.......while having no defense for the retaliation.

If you think Hamas would only target high value targets with high tech rockets then you couldn't be more naive. You don't give them proper rockets.....you give them zero rockets. That is why IDF is destroying tunnels and their rocket platforms, crippling the Hamas infrastructure. In the end, Hamas is just one of many nations in the middle east, most of them actually (except Egypt, they seem good) want to wipe Israel off the map.

For the first time in history, the Jews have power, and they have their own state, the only Jewish state on the planet. And I don't blame them for simply "having enough" of one race or another trying to kill them just for existing.