The nice thing about America is you can walk down the street saying you support a two state solution, or the elimination of Palestine, or the elimination of Israel. Most days you can do that in Israel too. Though probably not today.

This is because we have our own money, and our own resources. We are independent as a country and our opinions can be freely expressed. Same in Israel.

In the West Bank, you have to be in favor of a Two state solution. If you would rather stop fighting and ask for Israeli citizenship, you will be silenced. If you want to fight to eliminate Israel, you'd better not talk about it. This is because the people in the West Bank have no money and no resources and their government is bought and paid for by the US and EU so they enforce that party line.

In the Gaza Strip, you have to be in favor of fighting for the complete elimination of Israel, for all of it to become Palestine. This is because the people in the Gaza Strip have no money and no resources and their government (Hamas) is funded by Iran. So they enforce the Iranian party line.

In both cases the Palestinians in 2023 are simply fodder in someone else's geopolitical game and their opinion doesn't matter.

But before you feel too bad for them, remember that they were given an opportunity for a free and fair election in 2005 and they chose Hamas. Not all of them, of course, but a majority.

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