On the Israel-Palestine issue I think it's easy for a casual observer to conclude from complexities of discussions about the issue that the actual issue is complicated, but arguably it is not at all...
To quote Chomsky on Palestine and Israel,
November 30, 2010, "The Real News"; concerning the Middle East:
There's a core problem, the Israel-Palestine issue. There's other problems, but that's the core one. And there are a lot of problems in the world for which it's pretty hard to figure out a solution. This one happens to be uniquely easy to figure out the solution-- there is one. It's been on the table for 35 years. Virtually the entire world supports it. The only holdouts are the United States and Israel. At least in theory and words, Europe, the Non-Aligned countries, the Arab states, the Organization of Islamic States, which includes Iran, they basically all agree on a political settlement on the internationally recognized border. It's the so-called Green Line, pre-'67 borders, with two states, Israel and a Palestinian state in the occupied territories, and possibly some adjustment of the border.
Given the basics from my Not Pro-Israel Primer, I think a lot of the points people raise resolve pretty quickly:
Q: But what is Israel supposed to do about rockets from Gaza?
A: Retreat to the legal, pre-1967 borders, and if someone shoots
at you then, then you have a right to complain.
Q: But what about the Israeli settlers in the occupied
territories?
A: Let them stay there if they want. I'm sure the new
state of Palestine will treat them as fairly as
Israel treats it's native Arab population.
Q: But Hamas is a bunch of evil bastards!
A: Who isn't, at this point? And you know, they won
an election. Democracy and all that.
Q: Doesn't Israel have a right to self-defense?
A: Invading, occupying armies don't have the right
to invoke "self-defense".
Q: But the 1967 borders are indefensible!
A: If the occupied territories are a military buffer zone,
why are they putting civilian "settlers" there?
Q: The UN figures exaggerate civilian casualties in Gaza!
A: Well maybe... but even if many of them were combatants,
don't the Palestinians have a right to self-defense?
The real question: Why isn't this all obvious to everyone? How
did mainstream reality diverge so far from the actual reality?