Fiction and Reality

In the Land of Israel/Palestine (the land situated between Egypt and Jordan), fiction seems to trump reality on all sides. The fiction of Hamas is that they can defeat Israel militarily. The fiction of Abbas and the leadership of the West Bank (at least publicly although I don't know what they think privately) is that the West Bank and Gaza Strip are one country called Palestine, and that Palestine can become one state if the UN wills it. The fiction of the Radical Right in Israel is that the Arabs don't exist. Netanyahu promotes that fiction when he expands settlements in the West Bank. And of course there are many Arabs who think that the Jews don't exist. There are anti-semites in the world who also hold a similar idea, that Jews should not exist in Israel or anywhere. The reality is that Israel exists and is inhabited by the Israeli people who consist of 75% Jews, 20% Arabs, and 5% others. The West Bank and Gaza Strip are inhabited by mostly Arabs but also pockets of settlement Jews. East Jerusalem has Jewish neighborhoods which exist on land which Israel acquired after 1967. The Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem exists and the inhabitants have not been made into Israeli citizens and therefore are Palestinians.
So the reality is that both Jews and Arabs inhabit the land of Israel/Palestine, and neither are leaving because neither has anywhere else to go. They can kick the can down the road, but the present situation can not last forever. The resolution can not occur immediately, but it has to start somewhere. Palestine might never be one country or maybe it will some day. Maybe the ultimate solution will be 2 or more completely separate states, or maybe one bi-national state, or maybe some kind of confederation. But there has to be some movement to show that there is hope. Expansion of settlements is contrary to the interests of everyone, least of all Israel. Realism is a necessity.