Poll: 91% against Obama imposing deal
A huge majority of Israelis would oppose an attempt by US President Barack Obama to impose a final-status agreement with the Palestinians, a poll sponsored by the Independent Media Review and Analysis (IMRA) organization found this week.
Leading American newspapers reported last week that Obama was considering trying to impose a settlement if efforts to begin indirect proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians proved unsuccessful. The option was discussed in a meeting with current and former advisers to the White House.
Asked whether they would support Obama imposing a plan dividing Jerusalem and removing the Jordan Valley from Israeli control, 91 percent of Israelis who expressed an opinion said no and 9% said yes, according to the poll of 503 Israelis, which was taken by Ma’agar Mohot on Sunday and Monday and had a 4.5% margin of error.
Eighty-one percent said it was improper for Obama to try to force such a plan on the two sides, while 19% of those who expressed an opinion said it was proper.
The poll asked whether it would create enduring peace or enduring conflict should Jerusalem be divided, with Jewish neighborhoods remaining part of Israel and Arab neighborhoods becoming part of a Palestinian state. Eighty-four percent said conflict and 16% said peace.
The numbers were similar for the Jordan Valley, where 90% opposed relinquishing Israeli control and 10% were in favor.
Meanwhile, a poll of Palestinians conducted on April 8-10 by the Center of Opinion Polls and Survey Studies at An-Najah University in Nablus asked Palestinians whether they would accept the creation of a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders with a land exchange as a final solution for the Palestinian problem, and whether they would support or reject making Jerusalem a capital for two states.
The numbers on the two-state solution were 66.7% against, 28.3% in favor, and 5% who did not know or did not express an opinion. On the Jerusalem issue, 77.4 said they opposed such a plan, 20.8% were in favor, and 1.8% had no opinion or chose not to express it.
Read that last bit again. The Palestinians will not accept a “peace plan” on even the least possible advantageous terms for Israel.
There cannot be peace without a peace partner. Hamas and Fatah have done a sufficiently good job in indoctrinating the last three generations of Palestinians to hate Israel that now there is no chance for Palestinian public support of a plan that Israel could not agree to anyway.
The only “fast solution” to the problem is going to be a complete victory by one side or the other.
There is a slow solution, one that will take about 40 years, a timeline so long that no Western government can possibly keep its eye on the prize that long, although Muslim governments seem to have no problem conceiving and employing decades long strategies (which is exactly why we are where we are today). That slow solution is fairly simple.
The world’s governments COULD simply cut off all aid to Palestine, if Palestine continues to teach hate in its schools and media, and continues to elect Hamas. The world does not “owe” Palestine anything, anything at all. If Palestine chooses to be run by a terrorist organization, so be it. Then we could wait about 40 years for the current haters to die, and for the next generations to begin to wonder what the fuss was about. And those people might then be peace partners.
Of course, the world’s governments would have to stand together in this, and, of course, Iran, Syria and China, at least, would be likely to do an end-run around any ban imposed by the rest.
And that illustrates the essential issue. Far from the “conflict in the middle east” problem STEMMING from the Israel/Palestine issue, the exact reverse is true. The Israel/Palestine issue EXISTS, still, because several nations see it as in their best interests to keep it from ever being solved. This has been true since the creation of the modern Israel.
But you can’t make peace with people who, more than anything, want you dead.
When even experienced negotiators begin to see this, it’s time to take notice.
