Murray Rothbard on irreconcilable claims in Palestine

If we take off our blinders, it should be stunningly obvious that what we have in the entire Israeli region are two absolutely irreconcilable claims, an irreconcilability that applies equally well to Israel Proper as it does to the occupied West Bank.  On the one hand, there are the Palestinian Arabs, who have tilled the soil or otherwise used the land of Palestine for centuries; and on the other, there are a group of external fanatics, who come from all over the world, and who claim the entire land as "given" to them as a collective religion or tribe at some remote and possibly legendary time in the past.  There is no way the two claims can be resolved to the satisfaction of both parties.  There can be no genuine settlement, no true "peace" in the face of this irrepressible conflict; there can be either a war to the death, or an uneasy practical compromise which can satisfy no one.  That is the harsh reality of the Middle East.

~ Murray Rothbard, "The Vital Importance of Separation," Rothbard-Rockwell Report, April 1994, p. 4