Polls, Palestinians and the Path to Peace - article by Daniel Pipes


The usual clear, cogent Pipes reasoning concerning the quest for peace and the facts that need to be faced if peace is to come:

Why are Palestinians so angry at Israel? There are two possible reasons.


Political: They accept the existence of a Jewish state but are angry with this or that Israeli policy.


Rejectionist: They abominate the very existence of Israel and want to destroy it.


Which is correct has many implications. If Palestinians only want changes in what Israel is doing (such as building towns on the West Bank), then it is reasonable to ask Israel to alter those actions - and the main burden of resolving the conflict falls on Israel.


But if Israel's existence remains at issue, then it follows that the conflict will end only when the Palestinians finally and irrevocably accept the Jewish state. Seen this way, the main burden falls on the Palestinians.


If it's a routine political dispute, diplomacy and compromise are the way to make progress. But if the Palestinians reject Israel's very existence, diplomacy is useless, even counterproductive, and Israel needs to convince Palestinians to give up on their aggressive intentions. More bluntly, Israel would then need to defeat the Palestinians.


Which interpretation is correct?


In a spring 2002 poll of residents in the West Bank and Gaza conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center, a Palestinian organization, 43 percent of respondents called for a Palestinian state only in the West Bank and Gaza and 51 percent insisted on the state in "all of historic Palestine," code words for the destruction of Israel. [...]