Ever since then-PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, infamously carrying a pistol, spoke at the UN in 1974, the Palestinian situation has not significantly changed. In fact, as the situation in Gaza attests, it has only gotten worse – despite the PA winning vote after vote in the UN General Assembly.
If the Palestinians had spent the same energy over the past half-century building up the areas under their control in the West Bank and Gaza rather than demonizing Israel on the world stage, their situation today would be markedly different and much better.