This will achieve neither peace nor security for they can never be achieved through terror, tanks, Apache helicopters, missiles and the destruction of homes, sieges and collective punishment. Israel must learn that it will not be able to force the Palestinians to surrender, and it will not enjoy peace and security while denying the same to the Palestinians. The road to peace and security passes through recognition of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, withdrawal from their land and the achievement of their right to return to their homeland and compensation. If the two parties to the conflict are left alone to negotiate, there will never be peace, as what is acceptable to the Palestinians and the Arabs is rejected by Israel, and vice versa. And as the last seven years have shown, the US has no independent Middle East policy and is not an honest broker anyway.
Peace is too important to the whole world and to regional stability to be left unresolved.
Therefore international intervention to achieve peace based on international law and UN resolutions is essential. For years the international community exercised tremendous pressure on the PLO demanding the PLO recognise Israel as well as UN resolutions 242 and 338, on the principle that by doing so Israel will then comply. The PLO did all this and more as far back as November 1988. It is past time for the Western world to exert pressure on Israel to recognise Palestinian rights, the relevant UN resolutions and to withdraw from the 1967-occupied territories. One - Don't miss the boat.