And beside, even with your argument you neglect to take power and fear into account. For most of this period of history in which you note peace exisiting between Jews and Arabs, the Jews had no independent state. And neither had Arab nationalism or Zionism existed. The conflict is relatively modern because reasons to fear one another are relatively new.

It is not possible to go into the entire history here but both sides have reasons for their claims and their actions. You are right that it is the Israelis who need to be taking the first step, and many others are right to say that the Israelis have been hugely hypocritical in their treatment of the Palestinians. But Israel is not turning a cold shoulder on the Palestinians due to a belief in their racial superiority. They do so due to their philosophy of an ‘Iron Wall’ (Jabotinsky coined the concept in the 20s if you want to look it up). Basically they fear doing what might be construed as a sign of weakness. They fear creating a hole in this wall that their enemies will flood through, creating a new holocaust.

That said however, the ‘iron wall’ is flawed for too many reasons to state. There are only two outcomes of the Israeli-Palestinian problem. The first is death and misery, which I’m sure you’ll agree no one wants. The second is that Palestinians are given the ‘right of return’, even if only as a symbolical gesture, and that two states are created on the pre-1967 border with Jerusalem acting as a joint Capital guarded and enforced by UN Peacekeeping troops and also a UN police force. This solution will be incredibly difficult; it will require huge funds being invested into the new states to ensure that they are a success; and it will require a great deal of international pressure, perhaps even outright force to ensure. But that is the way forward.

As for the comment by Kofi, Israel has broken over 200 UN human rights laws, South Africa broke less then 30, you do the math, if you can manage it.

Plus Israel is a military occupation, the worst ever, Apartheid was not military it was by force — police force — but is was not the 3rd most powerful military against an unarmed civilian population.