Conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has become a fixture of the Middle East. Israelis can live with that as long as they retain military superiority and American backing, and are able to instil the fear of God in their opponents. Israeli leaders take Hizbollah's decision not to broaden the last Gaza war with rocket attacks on Israel as evidence that their strategy is still valid.
Yet as Israelis go to the polls next week for an election in which Benjamin Nethanyahu (pictured), a hard line believer in Israel's strategy of overwhelming capability and force, is the front runner, that strategy may have run its course.
Many Palestinians and Arabs have lost faith in the feasibility of the two-state solution involving a Palestinian state alongside Israel. They despair in the wake of the Gaza war and 21 years of failed peacemaking based on Palestinian concessions to Israel. They see no alternative to the two-state solution beyond continued resistance and steadfastness that offer little prospect for building normal, prosperous lives.
If there is a sliver of hope, it may lie in demography. Demographics could constitute a greater threat to Israel than Palestinian rockets or terrorism, and may be the wrench to break the cycle of death and destruction.
It has already motivated Israel's partial withdrawals from occupied territory, even though Israel refused to surrender control and empower Palestinian government. It also persuaded Israel to pay lip service to the two-state solution, although it did not demonstrate the boldness and vision needed to make that happen.
The figures speak for themselves. Although Jews will remain a majority in sovereign Israel, in the next decade they are projected to become a minority in the area between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. As long as Israel remains in the West Bank and Gaza, this demographic forecast will pose a threat to the country's Jewish identity.
Nethanyahu has warned that if the Palestinians living inside Israel's pre-1967 border cross the 20 per cent threshold, the Jewish nature of the state would be in danger. Fear of the demographic threat persists, despite some studies that suggest the threat may be less than imminent.
Demographics leave Israel with a choice: to encourage Palestinian immigration, pursue a policy of attempting to break Palestinian will, or seek a political accommodation that meets enough of the aspirations of both parties.
While Israel retains all three options, memories of the Gaza war are likely to focus on the human rights