I hear you. It took an issue off the table at the expense of the Palestinians and left them in a weaker negotiating position, but this:
AFAIK, the most recent concessions desired by the two sides are as follows:
PALESTINIANS
:
- A halt to the construction of Israeli settlements on land beyond the 1967 borders
- Negotiated borders based on the 1967 boundaries
- Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine
- The release of all Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, including those convicted of acts of terror
- The recognition of a right of return for all Palestinians living in the diaspora
- A series of smaller, specific issues, such as permission to build an airport in the Ramallah district and the right to issue visas as part of a tourism initiative
ISRAELIS:
- Sovereignty over Jerusalem, including the Old City
- Negotiated borders based on the 1967 boundaries, with land swaps taking into account the major West Bank settlement blocs
- Recognition of Israel as a Jewish state
- A demilitarized State of Palestine
- Right of return for Palestinian refugees only to Palestine, not to Israel
- An assortment of other smaller issues, such as no unilateral moves vis-á-vis international organizations
even without the Jerusalem issue, is so far off that there is no hope for ever getting peace. This is the very definition of an impasse.
[The enumerated requirements], even without the Jerusalem issue, is so far off that there is no hope for ever getting peace.
Well, I'm neither Israeli nor Palestinian, and I'm neither Muslim nor Jewish. As such, I don't have the historic, political, emotional, religious or ideological baggage those folks do. Accordingly, much of what's clear in the first five requirements, save for the Jerusalem pair, seems quite reasonable to me. The Jerusalem one isn't reasonable because it's mutually exclusive; it forces a "winner and loser" outcome rather than a "win-win" outcome.
Admittedly, releasing convicted terrorists is a bit too much to expect; however, I suspect there are a number of "convicted terrorists," that is, folks who are imprisoned as terrorists yet who are instead guilty of no such thing. (I don't think that about terrorists jailed for terrorism in every country, but I do think that there are some hyperbolically charged and convicted folks, Palestinians, thus incarcerated in Israel.) People who are, in effect, political (verbal, if you will) rather than physical (people who blew up things, shot people, etc.) terrorists should be released.
As goes the sixth point, beyond the two noted terms, I don't know all the detailed elements that both sides have indicated they desire. It's certainly possible that there are some unreasonable expectations (on both sides) in "Group 6" of the requirements.