You're skipping out an awful lot of fairly important information. Arafat briefly went along with negotiations and then backed out. He rejected the offer made to him by Ehud Barak based on a two-state solution and declined to negotiate for an alternative plan. So your half of the story doesn't mean much as it never materialised. Clinton said it was a waste of time!
The movements Israel made for peace were fruitless. Disengaging Gaza was a huge concession, and the response they got was Hamas. Bombs fired at them within a few weeks of leaving, and declarations of imminent annihilation which have not stopped since. This is hardly a sign people want peace with you, is it?
Whilst I was hopeful Hamas were not completely stupid and might see the best thing to do was move forwards in peace, they had clearly instead spent literally years planning this horrific terror attack which they would have been fully aware would kill any peace negotiations for years, perhaps even forever. And they have since gone on live television and stated openly they'd use a two state solution to plot a takeover and annihilation of Israel.
I don't deny the "Nakba" happened. I deny it's uniqueness. The same happened to Jews and many other people, including my own family. In fact I understate, because unlike the dispossession of most people's, this occurred at least partly because Palestinians chose to launch a war and then lost. The Nakba is in effect a very long grieving period for losing a war and being unable to accept the consequences like every other country on the planet in history.
The people who did not want to murder Jews and throw them in the sea stayed put and were made Israeli citizens. My family would have loved to be allowed to stay and be citizens of the countries where they'd lived for generations - but no such option was given, so excuse me if I don't join your bandwagon in believing this sad event was somehow so terrible that no one can possibly move on.
I do not believe Jewish people have "more right". I believe they have equal right. What was once Israel is now no longer Israel. Parts of it are in Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Jews are not murdering everyone to get it back. They accepted part of the land, and Palestinians had to accept part of it too. That is the choice people need to make, unless they want to fight to the death for it - and if they choose that then what do you want? Israel to commit suicide and just let them have it?
The fact is that Muslims took over this land and they implemented Islamic rule, which included making all people who were NOT Muslim dhimmi, subordinate to Muslims in a legal and very real sense. They have a certain way of life and living and certain belief systems that link their politics / law to their religious beliefs. And that's fine. What is NOT fine is to force with guns and bombs that all indigenous people succumb to this.
Palestine, has one of the most fundamentalist populations on Earth, with only Afghanistan and Pakistan scoring higher on the scales of religious piety. They almost all believe that homosexuality should be illegal for example. And that's up to them, but they cannot force ALL people to live this way.
Jews are indigenous to Israel. The Mosque is literally built ON TOP OF the Temple. It is their home too. And now they have a tiny piece of it (certainly not all) to rule themselves as they wish to live. They want western democracy and liberalism. They want freedoms. They want a country where Jews, Christians and Muslims are equal under law. They want democracy. They want music festivals where women dance in tiny clothes.
Why should they not be allowed this independence? The entire middle east simple does not belong to Muslims. Other people were there first and have just as much right to live THEIR belief system and THEIR way of life on those lands. It's as simple as that.
Palestinians were given 80% of the land by the Peel commission. They refused it. They were given 50% of the land by the UN. They refused it. Nothing other than 100% of the land is acceptable to them and it seems to me that most people just think "well just give it to them".
No. That isn't what justice or fairness looks like, they must share, just like everyone else had to.