If Israel compensated the Palestinian refugees for their losses, would this satisfy them? No.
If the Jews permitted a Palestinian state to be established next to theirs, would this satisfy the Palestinians? No.
Why? Because though loss of land, lack of self-determination, and desire for a homeland are all valid Palestinian grievances, they belie the real goal: governance by Palestinians over ALL of Palestine. The issue is not land ownership, it’s land SOVEREIGNTY. Hamas will never stop fighting Israel, as Israeli sovereignty over part of Palestine is incompatible with this goal. Even moderate Arabs who espouse the “one-state” solution are essentially working for the same goal of complete Palestinian governance. The difference is that Hamas would kill the Jews, while the moderates would tolerate them as a minority (though most must realize that religious minorities have historically not fared well in Muslim-dominated societies).
The irony is that Palestinians vehemently claim sovereignty over a piece of land which they have never governed. The Ottomans ruled over the land for centuries, until they transferred sovereignty to the British. Why did the British transfer partial sovereignty to the Jews? As far back as 1917, Lord Balfour declared the British intent of helping the Jews establish a homeland, long before the Holocaust. Jewish immigration was already in full swing in the 1920′s and 30′s, helped by European anti-Semitism, including the 1935 Nuremberg Laws that that stripped over 300,000 Jews of their German citizenship. It soon became obvious (even before WWII) that the growing Jewish and Arab populations in Palestine would be ungovernable under one state, so the British decided to partition their Palestine Mandate to create a homeland for each. The Arabs rejected the offer of partial sovereignty, as they still do to this day. The Jews accepted it, as their agenda has always been simply to have a homeland, as do the Armenians, the Turks, and many other ethnic groups. It is curious to see how Muslims vociferously rejected the British partitioning of Palestine, but none opposed the British partitioning of India -to create Muslim Pakistan.
So while the West may rightly pressure Israel to compensate the Palestinian refugees and to accept a Palestinian state, it is questionable whether this will stop the conflict. The main issue has never been the refugees, or the creation of A Palestinian state. The issue is the existence of Israel, and how it blocks the creation of THE Palestinian State.
