Facts on the ground

I think that anyone would agree that, objectively, the events that took place in the Americas between 1492 and say, 1880, I mean the dispossession of the native Americans from their lands, were wrong.  But here we are:  facts on the ground.   There's no going back.  There's really no back to go to.

In 1917, the British government essentially promised to "give" the Jews of Europe  land on which other people were living.  This was the Balfour Declaration: His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."  The legal authority by which the British felt they could do this was that they had beaten the Turks in WWI.  The Turkish government, in their turn, had taken authority over the land in question by beating the Mamelukes, and so on.  To be brutally honest, the only reason the British had any authority in England was because they beat the Celts.

But there you are: facts on the ground.  After a while, a generation, a century, it no longer matters how we got here.  Here we are.  Of course, it may still matter to some people but no one who counts.  Do the Israelis have a right to live in Israel?  Where else are they going to live?  Facts on the ground.  Do the Palestinians who were driven out of Israel, or who left for whatever reason, have a right to live in Israel?  Well, they're living somewhere else now.  Facts on the ground.  Is all of Jerusalem part of Israel?  It sure seems to be.  Facts on the ground.

Every day there are new facts on the ground.  A wall separating Israel from the West Bank, except that for, you know, good reasons, some the Israeli side of the wall includes what was part of the West Bank before the wall was erected but, well, that's where we are.  Facts on the ground.

All  this can possibly mean is that the Palestinians will have to establish facts on the ground.  There will be no resolution in the courts to give them a viable state.  There will be no Balfour Declaration for them.  No one will give them a single piece of land that facts on the ground tell us is part of Israel.  They must, it seems, change the facts on the ground or nothing will change.

When all options save all out war are taken off the table, what else remains?  Facts on the ground.