Reply #1: But you can have an agreement that's short of peace.

[aranthus]

Sure there won't be peace unless the Arabs, including the Palestinians, accept Israel as a Jewish state. And no, they never will. But that doesn't mean that there can't be an agreement. The US and the Soviet Union ended the Cold War without making real peace until the fall of Communism. Israel and the Palestinians can reach a detente of sorts even though the Palestinians will never accept a Jewish state. It just takes the vision to see that that half a loaf is better than none, and the will to make it happen.