More people pile on against Obama's settlement freeze

This time it's by a Palestinian and US advocate for the Palestinian cause.

Strangely, both sides seem to agree that Palestinian rejection of the state of Israel is the root of the conflict. How can Obama et al then show that that the settlements are the key to resolving the conflict?

They can't. The "settlement freeze" is only supposed to be a "first step," which Israel has to take, since the Arabs/Palestinians won't. Something like that.

The Two-State Solution Doesn’t Solve Anythingwww.nytimes.com

Over the past two decades, the origins of the conflict were swept under the carpet, gradually repressed as the struggle assumed the narrower shape of the post-1967 territorial tug-of-war over the West Bank and Gaza.

In their eyes, to accept Israel as a Jewish state would legitimize the Zionist enterprise that brought about their tragedy. It would render the Palestinian national struggle at best meaningless, at worst criminal. Their firmness on the principle of their right of return flows from the belief that the 1948 war led to unjust displacement and that, whether or not refugees choose or are allowed to return to their homes, they can never be deprived of that natural right. The modern Palestinian national movement, embodied in the Palestine Liberation Organization, has been, above all, a refugee movement — led by refugees and focused on their plight.

www.nytimes.com