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Israel could work as an ethnostate. But they'd have to give up the Palestinian areas they control. If they'd turned over the West Bank and Gaza to the PLO in the 1990s they'd likely be much more of a stable normal country today.
I'm not sure what you mean by "Palestinian areas," but I think it's worth noting that Israel tried leaving Gaza and the result was a disaster. Given that there is very strong anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiment among Palestinian Arabs, I doubt that it's a matter of just picking the right organization to be in control.
That's why I said in the PLO 90s. Hamas throws a wrench in things, but it could still work many West Bank towns are under full Palestinian control, the PLO are not as willing to die as Hamas.
Yes, I'm aware. I'm extremely skeptical that would have worked given (1) the extreme anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiment among Palestinian Arabs; and (2) the widespread support for terrorism among the Palestinian Arabs.
In practice, that's not the case. The Israeli authorities enter from time to time to arrest certain people; if a troublemaker is known to come from a certain town, the Israeli authorities will put pressure on that town in various ways; and probably other things are done which aren't widely publicized.
If Israel just left J & S / WB to fester as was done with Gaza, I'm pretty confident that within a few years you'd have another Gaza. It's worth noting that to a large extent Hamas has enjoyed widespread popular support among Palestinian Arabs everywhere, not just in Gaza.
Optimistically, there's something of a chicken-and-egg problem here. Forty years down the line in the counterfactual where a two-state solution was implemented in the 90s, would young Palestinians grow up with such extreme hatred of Israel if they perceived it as simply a neighboring country, and not the oppressor controlling the land they themselves currently live on? I don't know that it would reduce Palestinians' anti-zionist sentiment by a wide enough margin but equally, it would be surprising if it didn't reduce it at all.
The primary motivator is anti-Semitism. When Jordan controlled J & S and Egypt controlled Gaza, the Palestinian Arabs living there focused their hatred on '47 Israel. In fact, the PLO made clear that it was NOT claiming those areas.
Sure, but I do think you might get fewer able-bodied young men volunteering to martyr themselves for the cause when the cause being sold to them by the terrorist recruiters is "I know things are fine around here, but there's all these disgusting enemies of the Prophet who hurt our ancestors over there, let's go attack them" as opposed to "you know how everything around here is shit? it's because of those hated infidels who are currently oppressing and bombing us, so let's kick them out of our rightful fatherland". Observably, stable, independent Muslim nations spend considerably less effort on trying to wipe Israel off the map than Hamas does, even if many of them still have that as one of their long-term goals.
I am pretty skeptical about that. ISIS was able to do quite a lot of recruiting in Western countries. Perhaps more in poor countries, but was that due to the wealth disparity or just ease of access?
It's not widely reported but Israel (and Western NGOs) have put a lot of effort into economic development among Palestinian Arabs, in part with the idea that this will lessen animosity along the lines you proposed. Has it worked? I'm skeptical, but of course there's really no way to know that there hasn't been SOME positive effect. Certainly it hasn't solved the problem.
I feel like it has worked pretty well, if you compare the West Bank and Gaza there's obviously a huge difference.
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