Israel has been dodging peace offers now for 32 years

The title might sound like a wildly off the wall statement, but anyone who knows the real history about what's gone on there knows that this is a fact.

The first peace offer came in 1971 from Anwar Sadat of Egypt -- rejected by Israel with "panic and unease" according to Israeli writer Amos Elon.

Next came another peace offer from Saudi Arabia in 1981 -- rejected with threats of bombing the oil fields if they kept it up. Shimon Peres called it "the destruction of Israel" -- just as Ariel Sharon called the latest peace offer from the Arab League Summit in March 2002 "the destruction of Israel" -- since they would no longer be able to steal more land, that is their "destruction."

Also in 1981, the PLO started to make it clear that they were interested in a negotiated settlement. Israel started making plans to invade Lebanon where the PLO was at the time and after attempting to elicit a response through unprovoked bombardment of South Lebanese towns finally invaded in the summer of 1982 killing 20,000 people. The main reason for the attack was to avoid any negotiated settlement that the PLO was threatening to offer.

"From early 1981, Israel launched unprovoked attacks which finally elicited a response in July, leading to an exchange in which six Israelis and several hundred Palestinians and Lebanese were killed in Israeli bombing of densely populated civilian targets. Of these incidents, all that remains in the collective memory of the media is the tragic fate of the inhabitants of the northern Galilee, driven from their homes by katyusha rockets. After a cease-fire was arranged under U.S. auspices, Israel continued its attacks. The Israeli concern, according to Yaniv, was that the PLO would observe the cease-fire agreement and continue its efforts to achieve a diplomatic two-state settlement...Israel attempted with increasing desperation to evoke some PLO response that could be used as a pretext for the planned invasion of Lebanon, designed to destroy the PLO as a political force, establish Israeli control over the occupied territories, and -- in its broadest vision -- to establish Ariel Sharon's 'New Order' in Lebanon and perhaps beyond. These efforts failed to elicit a PLO response. The media reacted by urging 'respect for Israel's anguish' rather than 'sermons to Israel' as Israel bombed targets in Lebanon with many civilian casualties."
-Noam Chomsky
http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/ni/ni-c10-s05.html

To anyone who wants to learn the recent history of the Middle East with all the lies and propaganda stripped away, see Noam Chomsky's "The Fateful Triangle." Try to get the latest version which has newly added chapters in it. This book is one of the best on the recent history there and it thoroughly documents that above statement as well as many other little known facts.