The Arab nations surrounding Israel will never truly accept a Jewish state in their midst.

As evidence I give you the persecution of non Muslims throughout the Muslim world.

Persecution of Christians

Persecution of Jews

What further complicates the current issues is the dubious history of the creation of Israel in the first place.

Creation of Israel and non creation of Palestine

Whether we like it or not the reality is for some in the Muslim world a Jewish state is unacceptable.   And the other reality is historically they have a point.  In so much as the international community created another problem when they cared the state of Israel out of thin air.

Israel knows all this and surrounded by people who don't really like them they are scared to give ground.   The extreme factions of Israel refuse to end the settlements or end the occupation for fear of what would come next.

Why would they be trusting of their neighbors?  

What historical and current realities would lead any reasonable person inside Israel to think that if we could magically go back to the 1948 borders and establish a Palestinian state the conflict would end and peace would begin anew?

I don't think for some parts of the Arab world that would be enough.   There will never be anything truly acceptable to the extreme factions in the Muslim world other then the end of the Jewish state which is impossible thanks to their military and our support.

Same goes for Israel.   Their extreme politics with the knowledge of the above sad reality will never go beyond the slight concessions they've been arguing over for years.   They won't end the occupation, they see the settlements as a buffer zone and in some extreme cases their God given right and so the cycle continues.

In a strictly moral sense it's easy to understand why the Palestinian people are outraged.  They have little freedom, no economy, terrible leadership and are a continual pawn in the bigger struggle between Israel and it's Arab neighbors.

It is a perfectly reasonable argument on their part that they too don't want to concede to the status quo and accept some sort of peace in exchange for the same horrible conditions they continue to live under.   It is also understandable that they feel like this isn't an equal negotiation or even a fair fight.   Israel holds the cards.  They are more powerful.   What reality would possibly lead a Palestinian to conclude that Israel in exchange for lasting peace would end the occupation and let them have a state to call their own?  

It is truly depressing.   Neither side currently has the leadership to bridge these sad realities so while they make small concessions to each other the greater issues at play are never addressed because neither side can ever satisfy the extreme sides of the other.

As evidence I give you the break down at Camp David, the assassination of Sadat and Yitzhak Rabin and countless other cease fires, accords, agreements and treaties that all eventually break down because the extremes of both sides are never happy.

Color me jaded but I'm tired of devoting any intellectual energy to this conflict.   In my mind neither side is reasonable.  Both sides have intractable demands and 66 years of history tells me that this conflict won't end in my lifetime and probably not in my children's.

From what I read, that perception is not entirely without merit.

Egypt is widely considered the natural regional mediator in such conflicts. But Egypt's relations with Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, have turned bitter since the military ouster last year of Egypt's elected Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, a leader in the Brotherhood. Under the new president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a former general who led the military takeover, Egypt has shut down most of the tunnels beneath its border with Gaza that were both an economic lifeline for the Palestinian coastal enclave as well as a major channel for weapons smuggling.