there and continue to play. thank you. >> thanks for watching this edition of aljazeera america. "inside story" is next. go the aljazeera.com for updates throughout the evening. >> have eight a once again heading from gaza to israel and israel to gaza. death and fighting come to a part of the world where two people say they want peace. have eight "inside story". [ ♪ music ] hello, i'm ray suarez. a few blocks where were i'm

standing yasar arafat and rabine who fought the egyptian army in 1948 at the birth of the state of israel shook hands with president bill clinton and each other at the white house. it was september 1993, and things that had not seemed possible in a long time suddenly were thinkable - that israel would recognise a self-governing palestinian state on land israel took in the 1967 war. that palestinians who had for decades denied the existence of israel and fought to push the jewish state into the sea would recognise and live side by side with it. once again the news is full of death, killing and counterkilling, and that sunny moment at the white house that brought hope with sober recognition of how much work was to be done seems a very, very long time ago. >> reporter: people run for

cover in tel aviv. violence between israel and hamas terrified israelis and palestinians. rockets fired from gaza with ranges longer than previously seen are reaching into israel. sirens wail, residents forced to take cover. hamas is volleying rockets into israel's territory at the rate of one every 10 minutes. israel escalated its bombardment. hamas militants are the target, palestinian civilians are feeling the brunt. >> translation: we as palestinians confirm that we will use every means to protect our palestinian people. the resistance used a little of its means during the fight and occupation. we will use all the means to protect the palestinian nation. dozens in the small and crowded strip have been killed. hundreds wounded. israel's prime minister is

accusing hamas of deliberately putting the innocent in harm's way by hiding arms and gunmen in residential areas in the gaza strip. >> it embeds its terrors. hospitals, schools, mosques apartment buildings, hamas is thus committing a double war crime, targetting israeli civilians and hiding behind palestinian civilians. >> earlier this week an israeli strike on a house killed eight members of the same family, including five children. an israeli military spokesman said warnings had been given at the target. but then people went back in. the spokesman called it a tragedy and not what we intended. >> at the u.n. on thursday, ban ki-moon called a meeting of the security council. >> now is not the time for further incitement or vengeance. we must not let spoilers prevail. we must keep the situation from

getting any further out of control. any further spiral of violence could have unforced consequences. >> spoilers and a spiral of violence may be the problem here. it was the kidnap and murder of three teenagers that set israel on edge and brought calls for retribution, then the murder of a palestinian boy by israelis, allegedly an act of revenge. have the cycles of attack, retaliation and escalation led to a situation where neither side could back down. why are extremists able to send the region into crisis, derailing efforts at peace, whenever anger turns to bloodshed. the continuing conflict between israel and the palestinians has once again flared into open hostility. it"s noted that the rank and

file of both people are tired of this, they want peace. what is going on in both communities bringing escalation instead of quiet. war instead of peace. that's the focus on this edition of inside story. with us for that conversation is girion bascan founder of israel creative initiatives. and the director for center of world religions, diplomacy from george mason university, and dan, who served as the u.s. ambassador to israel from 2001 to 2005. what is the mood in your country tonight. has it been quiet so far? >> this evening we had a barrage of rockets fall over the county, including in jerusalem where i live. areas in the south of the country were hit hard from

rockets from gaza, and i would say that the mood in the country is waiting for the israeli army to enter in gaza on the ground attack, aimed at finding the rocket stores and killing as many of the hamas leaders as possible. i think this is what the majority of the israeli public is waiting to happen. it seems that the israeli cabinet and the military are hesitating because they are poised to enter into gaza, yet the cabinet has not made that decision. >> does a week like this make peace seem further away, the conditions necessary for the two sides to broker an agreement eaching oath -- leaving both sides feeling they got enough of what they wanted. does it make it less possible than a month ago. >> it seemed pretty impossible for a long time. ironically the events might bring home to the israeli public

the need to re-enter the peace talks with the palestinians. two days ago, the newspaper sponsored a piece conference in sell avooef drawing nor han -- drawing more than 3,000 participants and there were hundreds of others that relation terred and couldn't get in -- registered and couldn't get in. it may provoke a change, getting israelis off the coup a couch ad into the streets to provoke change. >> if the sun rose tomorrow and you and i knocked on neighbours' doors and asked if they were more inclined or less inclined to make a deal, what would they say? >> i would think they'd want to talk business. >> that's the answer you expected. >> it is. it"s a long time for palestinians. there's a frustration, no

movement in the peace process or anywhere in their life. life is worse and worse for palestinians in the west bank, and this is leading people to believe that there is no peace agreement, that the idea of peace talks for most palestinianians is crazy. we are not talking about them. we don't believe the peace talks will move to anywhere. that's the mood among the palestinians. with the images out of gaza, you had over 80 killed. people are losing hope. i talked to friends in gaza. the response to me was we are waiting to see if we die or live. if you are in israel you have shelters. if you are in gaza, you can't go anywhere. the idea you can run away from where militants might be. gaza is a dense place. you can't go anywhere. this reality is making it impossible. palestinians and israelis up to the time i grew up don't meet each other, they don't know each other at all. everything israelis know about

palestinians is the rockets coming from gaza. everything palestinians know about israeli are the bombings in gaz e, that makes it -- gaza, and that makes it less like i to come together. >> sounds from what you are both saying, that it"s hard for either side to give in or give up. so what we'll do is keep on going what we saw on television a few moments ago. >> that's how it"s been going. i think today is like a childish game. it"s a revenge, an ego, it's not solving an issue. there was a few attacks. thinking that force alone will solve the israeli palestinian conflict to either side is not realistic. it will go on. the only people benefitting from this are the politicians, not the people. >> you heard gershon say there

was a peace conference, 3,000 people showed up. if we were to do a similar conference in janine or ramallah or bethlehem would we get thousand of people that want to come to talk about how to end this or would they talk about how to end it on their own terms? >> i don't think thousands of people will come. people on the palestinian side are tired of peace talks, conferences, talks of peace. the reality of life was more or less normal until this. you go to work, have a good job and a great economy. in palestine you have a terrible economy, not a good life, checkpoints are between every village. it's not normal. if you do that, people wouldn't come. they are coming saying "we want a solution, we don't care what it is, give us a way out." and they are looking at representatives, politicians, and are not seeing a vision. hamas vision of armed struggle

is not working, didn't work. the plo, pa vision of peace negotiations for 20 years didn't go, and palestinians are very frustrated. they don't know where we are going. >> ambassador dan court ser, when we look at moments like the oslo accords. each the talks not ending in a settlement, there was a feel of forward movement of some kind. have we come to a point where those seem naive, those attempts, at earlier peace? >> i don't think so. what you had in the past when we had successes, whether in the '70s, or the egyptian treaty or the madrid conference or oslo was a combination or determination on the part of the

two people's to make progress, but determined strong leadership. and what we are missing today, really, is that combination. i think in all of the constituencies you have an israeli government that says it wants to make peace, but settlement activity continues, and continues to eat up the land which is negotiated over. you have a palestinian leadership which is trying to marshall support for a peace process that, as you heard from aziz is not popular, and you have spoilers on the palestinian side who will continue violence and other activities against peace, and you have leadership in washington, which although you have a determined effort by secretary of state john kerry for a series of meetings over six, seven, eight months, ended up in calling a pause. in other words, a sign of real failure to move in thing forward. i continue to believe that we can achieve what the two peoples

want. we can push back against the spoilers, but in order to do that you need leaders with backbone, and that's what they need to see on all three sides. >> haven't we had leaders with too much backbone lately? >> well, you have had leaders with too much testosterone, and that's what you see with the volley of rockets and responses. i'm looking for diplomatic backbone, the activities prompting anwar sadat to go to jerusalem, and other leaders going against the graining, doing what they said they would never do. that's what we'd like to see now, and the united states playing a more active role than we have seen until this moment. >> we'll take a break. when we come back, we'll talk

about a future minister role, whether either side sees the united states as an honest broker and whether the ground has been too disturbed or roughed up for either side to make the only compromises that will lead to piece. this is "inside story."

welcome back to "inside

story" on al jazeera america. israeli defense force spokesman said israel struck more than 300 targets from wednesday to thursday, training fire on tunnel networks and rocket launching sites. militants fired hundreds of rockets into israel, many aimed at the two largest cities - jerusalem and tela vooef. tel aviv. >> you heard about the need for stronger u.s. leadership. are both sides as trusting as they were of the united states role in this process in the '90s, in the '80s and other times in the history of struggle. >> no, definitely not. definitely i can tell by the palestinian side, with the palestinian government or people. there's not much faith in the u.s. pressuring israel to come to an agreement. we saw the obama administration

try to pressure the israeli government. it failed. they tried to pressure binyamin netanyahu on a partial freeze. it barely worked. there's not much faith in that end. this is creating a reality for palestinians of free thinking, is that the way forward. if there's no negotiations any more, and it"s failing, and settlements are growing, is the peace process in its current framework going to work. most palestinians will say no. there's a shift among palestinians that israelis and americans don't see yet, which is people coming to say "we don't want the pa and plo any more. we don't want the 2-state solution any more", and there's a major shift that will be much more represented among palestinians. people saying "if you are not going to give us a 2-state solution, we'll fight for equal

rights. make up your find. you can't say you want peace and eat more and more land." >> recently there has been a lot of tension between the binyamin netanyahu government and the obama government. the two are said to not have a great relationship. that has its impact on the peace process. i'm wondering whether israel is ready to have the united states as an interlock tur any longer anyway, no matter who is president, in 2017 or when binyamin netanyahu and his cohorts move on, whether this period of this whole relationship is now over. >> it seemed at the beginning of the process that john kerry fostered back in july last year that binyamin netanyahu was vested in the project. these are the reports from the israeli, palestinian and american side of the

negotiation. around mid-november of last year, binyamin netanyahu dropped out of the process, and from that point the trilateral negotiations going on with the americans, the palestinians, and the israelis at the table ended. my analysis takes us back to the agreement worked out by the five permanent members of the security council in germany on the interim phase of the agreement to present iran from being a nuclear power. you may remember that net's position was that the americans betrayed israel op their promise to prevent iran from being a break-out state, and opened up the end of sanctions on iran, and at that point it seemed that binyamin netanyahu believed that obama betrayed him and he was no longer obligated to the promise that he made to obama to deliver a free and viable palestinian state. so i think we have to look at this in a wider regional context in order to understand it, and

understand the mistrust that exists between binyamin netanyahu and abbas, as ambassador indick described it. they loathe each other, there's no trust between them. during the nine months of the kerry negotiations the two leaders never talked to each other. >> mr ambassador. maybe it"s time for someone else to be in the middle of these two. >> given the skepticism that you heard from aziz and gersian, i'm not the only lonely guy suggesting that there's a role for the united states. i think the united states can play the kind of role we did in the past. i'm not satisfied for the degree to which the obama administration or the bush administration before that or the clinton administration followed through on diplomacy that we were able to do. if the palestinians or the israelis think there's a different way to do this, i would be supportive.

there's no monopoly that the united states seeks to exercise. i'll give you an example. the other day, in anticipation of that conference that gershian talked about, prince turkey ben visal wrote an op ed suggesting a regional approach to peace based on the arab peace initiative. israel has not responded since that was initiated in 2002. the palestinian authority never came out and said it favors that as an approach. maybe that's a way to go if the two sides don't think the united states can do the job, widen the lens and see if there's a regional way to move forward. my guess is at the end of the day there'll be a need for a very determined american role to give the kind of assurance to the state of u.s. ra -- israel

make the move to peace. dan kurt ser is with us from princeton. we'll take a break. when we come back we'll talk about whether the vision of the end came held by these two people is so irreconcilable that the problem is not the united states, it"s there's no way everyone can get what they want. in is "inside story". stay with us. 's there's no way everyone can get what they want. in is "inside story". stay with us.

>> you're watching "inside story" on al jazeera. i'm ray suarez. rockets are headed from gaza to israel and israel to gaza, and underneath the rockets, as they arc across the sky are people tired of it all, and probably belief that by now both sides would have had enough. girion bascon you had contact with members of hamas and other palestinians over the years. if it was up to up and them to

figure this out, do you think it would have gone better. are there small portions of both people that make it impossible for the whole people to give the other guys what they need? >> i don't think it's possible for us to reach an agreement with hamas agreeing to peace and recognition and a 2-state solution where we know what it looks likes. it is possible to reach an agreement between israel regional and israel mainstream. if they were delivered a 2-state solution along the 67 borders with territorial swaps, two cap false in jerusalem -- capitals in jerusalem. agreed solutions to the refugee problem, you would have between 60 and 70% of palestinians that would support it. the problem that most israelis

and palestinianions don't think it's possible. if we have the brave leaders standing up with the backbone and had the guts to go in, reach an agreement and deliver it to the people, it would be accepted. >> azis, you left the arm struggle because you thought it was not going to lead you where you needed your people to be. are there people stood who are getting ready to make the decision because they see a futility for it or is the hopelessness, the lack of progress attracting more people to take up arms. >> the lack of progress is attracting people to the armed struggle, not because they think it will lead to something. there's so much frustration and anger. they feel there's nothing else they have. i don't agree with that. i think we have locked ourselves into a corner, where you think you have to do peace negotiations or you have to do arms struggle. there are other options much the

palestinians have other options and should go for them. one is for the palestinian authority to exist, supporting and coordinating for his rail, footing the bill for the occupation in the west bank should not continue. we shouldn't pay and police ourselves to protect israel, that is not the goal of palestinian authority. palestinian authority should give israel an ultimatum saying "we have six month, we'll make it work or here is the key back. take responsibility, don't take land, make settlement and build factories and have us do the work. pay for health care and education from american money. take your responsibility until we ask for equal rights", and in this case a jewish state would not exist, it will be a democratic state. if that's what israel wants, it needs to choose, it can't

continue as it is. >> you heard a palestinian and israeli talk about the future, ambassador, is there a hope that we will not have this same conversation a little greyer and balder 10 years from now? >> sure. i think there's more than a reasonable hope. the reason i say that is that there are a number of articulated visions out there that as gershan suggested would attract the support of the majority of both populations. the geneva initiative, through non-governmental means, the ialona sabre principles. i published a framework in "pathways to peace", which both would find problematic but both would say it's fair and reasonable. as long as the reasoned outcome is out there, and as long as the alternatives look worse, there's

no reason we can't move forward to a peaceful solution. what you need it the kind of leadership that pushes back against those out to undermine the process. that takes a lot of tough skills decisions on the part of palestinianan and israeli leaders. >> we'll have to leave it there. good to talk to you all. that brings us to the end of this edition of "inside story". thank you for being with us. in washington, i'm ray suarez. join us next time.

>> east caracas, in the upscale neighborhood of altamira... an outpouring of anger at venezuela's government is met with a show of force. ...and we're caught in the middle of it. >> we've just seen tear gas being thrown. the police has showed up. everyone's running in this direction. >> since february, protesters have marched, blockaded streets, and fought running battles with the police. more than 40 people have been killed...over 3000 detained. >> so some of the protesters are now being arrested. but it's incredibly confusing. there's objects flying in all directions. there's even tear gas coming from the top of that building over there. it's hard to see what's going on. they're using pepper