It isn't the "occupation" that precludes peace. It is Palestinian refusal to accept the reality of a Jewish state and Jewish human rights

In May, in the wake of the latest Gaza war, 210 doctors signed a letter to The BMJ medical journal saying that Israel was the source of all evil.

It included this line:

The root cause of this cycle of violence is ultimately the Israeli military occupation and restrictions placed upon the Palestinian population. 

This is repeated often, especially by J-Street, but also by scores of "pro-peace" groups and anti-Israel groups.

It is utter garbage, and everyone knows it - because the Arab desire to wipe out Israel pre-dates the "occupation".

I just found an article from 1929 in the Canadian Jewish Chronicle where the Arabs (no one called them Palestinians, of course - those were the Jews) declared, to Great Britain, their prerequisite for peace with Jews:

"That there can be no peace in Palestine as long as the Balfour Declaration stands" will be the representation of an Arab deputation to the parliamentary Commission of Inquiry, it was decided at the conference on October 27 called by the Arab Executive. 

...The conference, attended by several hundred Moslem and Christian Arab leaders from all sections of the country as well as twenty-five representatives from Syria and a number from Tiansjordania, presented demands for the immediate abrogation of the temporary regulations existing at the Wailing Wall. Declaring that the temporary regulations have existed too long and disclaiming all responsibility for the consequences if their demands are not heeded, the Arab conference threatened to prevent the Jews from visiting the Wailing Wall altogether. 

In these two paragraphs we see the core of the conflict: the inability of Palestinian Arabs to accept Jewish nationalism, or to accept Israel. At the same time, we also see their refusal to accept that Jews have any religious, historical emotional ties to the land of Israel, and threatening to ban Jews from the Western Wall is done without a second thought. 

Palestinians still cling to the idea that Israel will disappear. It is in their media all the time - the Crusaders held onto Jerusalem for a total of 103 years before the Muslims reconquered it and the Jews are going to inevitably disappear as well, the thinking goes. 

Hamas summer camps are set up so children appear to be conquering Jerusalem.  Generations of students in UNRWA schools learn that they will inevitably "return" to conquer Israel. 

The remarkable thing about the UAE and Bahrain's normalization agreements is that they are the first Arabs to accept reality, that Israel is not going away and that the Jewish state wants peace, which not coincidentally is a key to their own success. 

Until the Palestinians learn that Israel is a reality and is not going to be destroyed, they will continue to harbor hopes that Israel can be defeated militarily.

In 2014, 60% of Palestinians said that their five year national goal should be to destroy Israel. 66% have said that a two-state solution is only a stage to destroy Israel. 

It is fantasy that causes Palestinians to believe that they will destroy Israel - but it is a fantasy that the world is in no hurry to dispel. 

This is the core issue. Once Palestinians accept reality, they can learn to work with an eager Israel on a peace deal.

But until then, they are the only obstacle to peace.

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