Palestine and Israel

I don't get the Palestinians.

I'm very sympathetic to their plight, thrown out of their country by the big powers, with decades of displacement following.  While their leaders and many of them have supported terrorism, I imagine that most of their people just want normal lives like the rest of us.  I want them to have their own country and to peacefully join the fraternity of nations.  That said, I'm also sympathetic to Israel and it's continued struggle to exist. It has a right to defend itself when attacked.  I understand that the issues that separate them are complex and weighty.

It seems to me that over the past fifteen years, Palestine has had statehood within its reach if it could just stop the attacks on Israel. I understand that many of them hate Israel (whether rationally or not) and they have decades of animosity to inspire that hate, but the constant attacks are completely and utterly self-defeating.  They can't possibly defeat Israel militarily and they can't possibly weaken or soften Israel enough for them to capitulate to what the Palestinians want.  Yet the Palestinians keep attacking with rockets, day after day, week after week, poking the giant next door until it attacks.  And then they suffer.

The Israeli counter-attacks might harden some in the world against Israel, but it won't accomplish any of the goals of the Palestinians and moves them farther away from statehood. It does nothing but result in death, destruction and misery.