Netanyahu is best described by the last two syllables of his name.

Maybe the settlements aren't at the core of the conflict -- systemic discrimination against Palestinians ranks right up there -- but any time you grab someone's land, they have a right to be ticked off.

Israel was created by fiat after the second world war.  It is now about 5 times its original size, and this was achieved through either conflict or appropriation.  I don't dispute that the claims that this is the Holy Land, but much of the area is considered sacred to other cultures as well.

The two state solution is far from perfect, but I think the Palestinians are as equally deserving of a homeland as the Israelis.  Propping up Israel as a buffer zone in the Middle East has been a colossal failure.  It's no more stable, and maybe less so, than it could have been.  Israel is both militaristic and expansionist and does not deserve the level of Western support it currently enjoys.