Welle, there are any number of good sites for the background information.  I do not have the patience to go through and recap even the past century.

If you don't know what went on in Damascus in 1840, you should be looking it up. 

I do NOT mean to sound unfriendly or curt to you:  I just think there are better ways to get that kind of information than trading posts.  And I do wonder why a person would be so fast and adament with their opinions when they are lacking so much of the background information...  Yes, I know that sounds rude, and I'm sorry.  

Maybe I can do better by waiting 'til I'm actually awake again to post? 

Mr Netanyahu roundly blames the Palestinians for their supposed intransigence, an analysis not shared by American or European mediators and monitors, who castigate Israel’s government for refusing to freeze the building or expanding of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the main bit of a future Palestinian state...

Thank you, something the economist has cited that I have been saying for ages. Most believe that Israel is creating the main obstacle for the talks.