Many Arabs and Jews living in the disputed territories were getting along relatively fine and are still capable of doing so today.
Western powers initially involved Arafat’s PLO in the peace process because at the time it was akin to al-Qaeda today; and foreign governments hoped to “moderate” these terrorists by turning them into diplomats and political leaders. But the PLO had no real ties here on the ground. And local Arabs, especially those of the older generation (who haven’t been brainwashed in PLO-run schools) have rued the group’s arrival ever since.
It seems that a great many of the Arabs living in Europe and America who identify as “Palestinians” feel the same. At a recent “Palestinians Abroad” conference in Istanbul that was anything but pro-Israel, the speakers spent the lion’s share of their time on stage attacking the Palestinian Authority (PA). Palestinians Abroad still wants to “liberate” the Holy Land from what they see as the “Zionist occupation,” but they similarly view the PA as interlopers.
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