1 After more than a hundred years, the IsraeliPalestinian conflict still dominates all spheres of our lives and troubles the entire world.This is a unique conflict, born in extraordinary circumstances. It can be described as a clash between an irresistible force and an immovable object - Zionism on the one side, the Palestinian people on the other.
2 Already a fifth generation of Israelis and Palestinians has been born into this conflict. The entire mental world of this generation has been shaped by the conflict.
3 In the course of this long conflict, as in every war, an enormous mass of myths, historical falsifications, propaganda slogans and prejudices has accumulated on both sides.
4 The behavior of each of the two sides to the conflict is shaped by their historical narrative, the way they view the history of the conflict over the last 120 years. The Zionist historical version and the Palestinian historical version contradict each other entirely, both in the general picture and almost every detail.
5 From the beginning of the conflict up to the present day, the Zionist/lsraeli leadership has acted in total disregard of the Palestinian narrative. Even when it wished to reach a solution, such efforts were doomed to failure because of ignorance of the national aspirations, traumas, fears and hopes of the Palestinian people. Something similar happened on the other side, even if there is no symmetry between the two sides.
6 The settlement of such a prolonged historical conflict is possible only when each side is able to understand the mental-political world of the other and is ready to speak as equal to equal, "eye to eye". Contemptuous, power-oriented, overbearing, insensitive and ignorant attitudes prevent an agreed solution.
7 "Leftist" Israeli governments that, at times, aroused much hope were afflicted with such attitudes as much as "rightist" ones, causing a wide gap between their initial promise and their disastrous performance. (For example, Ehud Barak's term in office.)