Back when I was still living in Israel 30+ years ago, the majority of Israelis as well as the majority of its leaders genuinely wanted to craft a peace agreement that would give the Palestinians an independent state in recognized borders.

There were certainly concerns arising from decades of Palestinian terror and their ceaseless attempts to delegitimize the state of Israel. These concerns led to Israeli positions that were a hard no for certain Palestinian demands.

For example, they wanted an automatic "right of return" for millions of Palestinians into whatever the new borders of Israel would be. This was an absolute non-starter for any sane Israeli. Why would we agree to give up claims for large portions of our ancestral homeland, only to then have them inject a "poison pill" into what remained, in the form of a group who would in a couple of generations become a majority that could and would turn Israel into another Palestine through legal elections?

Israel was willing to accept a token number of these folks, and to have Arab states provide funding to compensate those who couldn't return, based on the fact that hundreds of thousands of Jews were thrown out of those Arab countries over the past several generations, confiscating their property, and letting a nearly bankkrupt Israel have to absorb them and care for them.

The biggest issue was how to allay Israel's security concerns, given the multi-generational attempts of the Arab world in general and the Palesinians in particular to destroy Israel. If we were going to give them full soverignty over territory that's within assault-rifle range of hour cities, let alone the range of artillery, we needed to be able to ensure they would not be able to bring major military power anywhere near us. This means them having to accept certain limits on allowable military power, and Israel being given ways to verify this sticks.

So, the problem of not having good-faith negotiators n their side is that until and unless they accept that Israel won't and cannot allow anyone the power to destroy us, Israel will not of its own volition bare its metaphorical throat in order to give them a state.

Nor should it. Hence what I said, that while the outlines of the only ethical end solution are clearly known, the path from here to there is anything but simple and easy.