Paradigm list

The different paradigms under which Israel negotiates with the Palestinians and the Palestinians negotiate with Israel make it almost impossible to come to peace terms.

As I understand it, the Palestinian paradigm is that they have a legal right to 100% of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and that the descendants of any non-Jewish person who lived in Palestine prior to 1948 and who fled the fighting has a legal and human right to return to their ancestors home in Israel.  Furthermore, any peace treaty they agree to is grudging, since in reality the Jews have no right to this land and are thieves.  The Jews aren't really blood descendants of the Israelites of the Bible,  neither are they blood descendant's of the Judeans of 2,000 years ago; even if they were, Jewish claims to the land are superseded the long Arab majority presence in the land and by Islam itself.

The Israeli paradigm is that Jews have rights in all of "pre-1948 Palestine", and that while they are willing to facilitate the establishment of a Palestinian state in most of the West Bank in Gaza Strip, this is for pragmatic reasons, to consolidate a peaceful, prosperous Jewish state, not because they are legally compelled to do so. Furthermore, since Jewish leaders accepted a UN partition plan in 1947 and Arab leaders didn't, and because Arab armies aggressively attacked in 1948, 1967 and 1973, and would have killed every Jewish person there if they had won, the idea that the Palestinians have any legitimate legal entitlement is seen as preposterous; there has to be some price the Palestinians have to pay for having attacked and lost.

The Palestinian approach to negotiations is that they have rights they are not willing to abandon and while they might make some concessions to get a peace treaty, they are not going to concede much, since what is rightfully theirs is rightfully theirs.  To Israel, the whole point of peace is to get something that is better and more valuable; worth trading for land captured in a defensive war in 1967.

If Israel and the Palestinians ever successfully negotiate a peace treaty, it will be because one or both sides abandon their paradigm.   It is anybody's guess what circumstances would cause one or both of the sides to change paradigms.