I respect you lived experience, and would that no lives had been taken on either side throughout history.

The Lechi were, in my opinion, terrorists, pure and simple. That was why they splintered away from the Etsel, who themselves carried out actions I would not have condoned, and who themselves splintered for that reason from the Hagana and the Palmach. Each splinter felt that its parent organization was too reluctant to kill.

The Palmach were not terrorists. They did carry out armed assaults, but to the best of my knowledge they did not kill innocents. That was what led to the demise of the 35 fighters sent to relieve Gush Etzion. When they came across an unarmed shepherd, they let him live. He subsequently hurried to raise the alarm that led to the ambush that killed them all.

As for the characterization of European Jews who moved to the area in the late 1800s as thugs, the history I know contradicts it.

However, no matter who did what to whom, when, and with what justification or lack thereof, we stand today in a situation where neither people can (nor should be allowed to) do away with the other. That is why I say that a peaceful two-state solution is the only possible path that avoids catastrophe for all.