An harmonious response to BDS

The letter is heartfelt and sincere. But it makes several contradictions. First off all it calls for dialogue and engagement without accepting that Israel has effectively boycotted the Palestinians by ignoring their leaders and firing massive amounts of ordnance at their civilian populations. As well as building walls around an entire people. How can you have dialogue when you treat people so badly?

And what about the illegal settlements? That is the heart of the matter it seems. But Israel continues to provoke Palestinian resistance and international indignation by refusing to stop their spread.

Suzanna, it takes two to tango. The massive amounts of ordnance was fired at Gaza only after all else appeared to have failed to prevent about 8,000 rockets and mortars were fired at Israeli population centres.
Walls can be dismantled as well as built. Lives cannot be remade once curtailed. I hope one day to see the wall come down too, or at least moved to the Green Line to delineate Israel and a Palestinian state.
Yes, the toxic settlement enterprise is at the heart of the matter. But I am sure you will be surprised to note that, given the choice of settlements or a proper peace deal, most Israelis will choose the latter. Most Israelis, even those who vote for the Likud out of some kind of "tribal" loyalty are clever enough to realise that Israel cannot sustain the settlements and remain a democratic Jewish state and they are sad too that the settlers have been used as pawns in this game. Much like the Palestinians.

Joe, the problem is that the Palestinians in Gaza - the ones trapped after all - are firing in response to missile, tank and gunboat attacks on them!

There is no excuse for firing home made rockets on population centres but evidence of broken cease fires and indiscriminate killings mostly always point towards Israel and not the occupied Palestinians.

There are literally hundreds of Palestinian children who have died in their beds or at play as a result of Israeli nihilism and indiscriminate killing.

I also believe that many people in Israel accept that the settlements are morally and politically wrong.
Israel is sliding into an Apartheid system, which some brave Israelis are resisting. But many more are indifferent to or choose Apartheid as an acceptable modus operandi.

Lukas, if you checked cause and effect, you'd find that the 8,000-odd rockets and mortars were fired before Israel took action.

Not true Joe I'm afraid. During the time that the 8000 home made rockets were fired, approximately between 2000 – 2008, 21 people were killed in Israel. In the same period, 3000 Gazans, a fifth of them children were killed by the Israeli army and air force.

Gaza was already under siege before Hamas won an internationally recognised fair election. Israel has a powerful army that is trained almost exclusively on an unarmed population and has been the cause of violent death for many thousands of Palestinians. Hamas and other groups have retaliated with rockets that are relatively ineffective.

"evidence of broken cease fires and indiscriminate killings mostly always point towards Israel and not the occupied Palestinians"

What nonsense. But given who the poster is, no surprise.

"the toxic settlement enterprise is at the heart of the matter"

Obsessive nonsense. Arafat was offered 97%. And there were no settlements prior to 1967.

"moved to the Green Line"

The Green Line ceased to exist in 1967. It has no more relevance than Lukus' protestations that Hamas are angels in human form and are simply reacting to Israeli aggression.

Oh, and it's "a harmonious".