Dave Smith

What's far more important to understand, and I think it really is the only thing worth considering, is what the current inhabitants of Israel, the Palestinian territories, and the surrounding Arab states want out of life, not what they pretend to want or what a handful of the royal families want while their populations want something quite different.

What do the Jews and the Muslims in the region really yearn to accomplish?

What are they willing to sacrifice for?

What are they willing to die for?

And what are they willing to let their children die for?

When we focus on the present this way, if we're being honest, we must concede that there are two very different realities on either side of this conflict, culturally, psychologically, ethically, spiritually, in every way that matters.

Yes, Israel has its religious fanatics too.

they aren't the same sort of fanatics we find in hamas or hezbollah and they're far less representative of the surrounding culture none with notwithstanding everything that can be said against prime minister netanyahu the israeli far right and the settlers in the west bank and there is much to condemn i believe the following remains true

If the Palestinians laid down their arms, there would be peace.

There could be a two-state solution.

There could even be a one-state solution.

It wouldn't matter.

If the Palestinians simply stopped killing Jews and stopped building a culture that celebrates pointless murder and martyrdom as its highest value, there could be a diverse, tolerant, and prosperous society between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

There could have been one 80 years ago.

But if the Israelis laid down their weapons, there would be a genocide.

This was obviously true on October 7th.

And for anyone who's been paying attention, it has been true on every other day since the founding of the state of Israel.

Look, all I can say is this.

I've done a lot of these debates, a lot of debates on Israel-Palestine.

I think I have a pretty good record in those debates, but that's for the audience to decide.