A refreshing Reuters headline

Seldom in the last fourteen months that we've been posting have we seen such a straightforward and honest headline from Reuters, one that so succinctly and so well defines over six decades of conflict:

Israel makes settlement offer; Palestinians say no

Note however, how correspondent Jeffrey Heller rationalizes Palestinian Arab rejection of the request by Israel for recognition as a Jewish state:

The Palestinian leadership argues that recognition of Israel as a Jewish state would compromise the rights of Arab citizens of Israel who make up 20 percent of the population. 

Such a move, Palestinian officials say, also would effectively forgo the right of return of Palestinian refugees who fled or were forced from their homes in Arab-Israeli wars to return to territory that is now Israel.

while offering no counterbalancing background on the Mandate for Palestine or UN Partition Plan -- both rejected by the Arabs -- which specifically stipulate, under international law, the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.

How much clearer it would be to readers as to what precisely, keeps this conflict (and Reuters Jerusalem Bureau) rolling along.