Israel/Palestine

to reject the Saudi plan and for Begin and Shamir to totally anthemize the idea of negotiating with the PLO and accepting a Palestinian state. There was never anything short of the Palestinians getting full independence and the West Bank and Gaza that ever had any chance of producing a viable state.

Also, the Palestinians themselves weren't represented in those talks. Others presumed to speak for them. Anybody is going to be wary of agreeing to a proposal they themselves had no say in drafting.

And in negotiating, the only thing that works is negotiating with the people the other side chooses on its own to represent it. There has never been, at any point, ANY leadership independent of Fatah or Hamas that could ever have had any credibility with the Palestinians themselves, especially if there'd been an alternate leadership that would settle for "autonomy" or the confederation under Jordan instead of statehood.

I don't like the Palestinian leadership that exists now...it's just that it's pointless to try to replace them with another leadership, because this is the leadership that actually has the guns. A deal signed without them would be meaningless because they would be certain to go on fighting.