What to do about Palestinian aspirations: What everyone but the elite understands

What everyone but the elite understands: The Palestinian-Israeli conflict persists because Israel is, not what it does.

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 of these explanations is correct has many implications. If the 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 Palestinian-Israeli 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.

Also, 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 the Palestinians to give up on their aggressive intentions; more bluntly, Israel would then need to defeat the Palestinians.

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," a code-word for the destruction of Israel.

Thus, Palestinian rejectionism flourishes. But the outside world averts its collective eyes from this fact. Those institutions and individuals with a megaphone in both Israel and the United States, not to speak of the United Nations, the Left, and in diplomatic, journalistic, artistic, and academic circles worldwide generally assert that Palestinian acceptance of Israel has occurred and focus instead on Israel's need to "take risks for peace."

IN CONTRAST, only a small number of conservatives in Israel and the United States point out the continued power of Palestinian rejectionism. Given this backdrop of mostly wishful thinking, it is remarkable to see how realistically the Israeli and American electorates view Palestinian intentions.

The Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research at Tel Aviv University found in fall 2002 that 18 percent of Israeli Jews believe the Palestinians have accepted Israel's existence and 71 percent think the opposite.

To learn American views on this issue, the Middle East Forum recently sponsored a poll asking a national cross-section of one thousand likely voters, "Do you believe that the goal of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority is to have a small state living in peace alongside Israel, or is its goal the eventual destruction of Israel?" The response was clear. Nineteen percent of respondents said Arafat seeks a small state living in peace alongside Israel; 61 percent said he seeks the eventual destruction of Israel.

(Technical aside: the remaining 20 percent did not know or refused to reply; and this poll conducted on Feb. 11-12 by the New York polling firm McLaughlin & Associates has an accuracy of +/- 3.1% at the 95 percent confidence interval.) Not only are the Israeli and US numbers strikingly similar but even more noteworthy is how the American electorate ignores the overwhelming consensus of authoritative voices and, by a more than 3-to-1 ratio, understands that Palestinian rejectionism lies at the heart of the conflict.

This insight testifies to the wisdom of a free and informed people. It also has great potential significance for US policy, signaling to the Bush administration to heed its own electorate and recognize that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict persists because Israel is, not what it does.

This means abandoning the habit of pressing Israel to make further concessions to the Palestinians and instead aiming to convince the Palestinians that Israel is here to stay. This might entail such steps as:

Discouraging Palestinian anti-Semitism and other forms of incitement against Israel; Reassessing antiquated US policies that help keep the Palestinian "refugees" in limbo; Endorsing tough but necessary Israeli actions to end Palestinian violence; and Moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. The sooner Palestinian leaders and public alike, come to terms with the unalterable reality of Israel's existence, the better it will be for all concerned.

The writer is director of the Middle East Forum and author of Militant Islam Reaches America.

The area being called Palestine was the west bank of the nation of Jordan before '67. before that it was a British Protectorate since the end of the first world war, before that it was a part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. before this it was a barely inhabited desolute area. The first mistake here, propaganda in my opinion, is to refer to the people living here as Palestinians, there never was a nation called Palestine. This area is Israel, land taken by conquest from Jordan when Israel was at war with Egypt(Gaza Strip) and Syria (Golan Heights). Most of the inhabitants of the west bank or their ancestors relocated there in an attempt to inmprove their lives by working in the developing Israeli economy. Yasser Arafat himself was born in Egypt in 1937. They are more correctly refered to as Israeli Arabs than Palestinians. And yes, they want nothing less than the destruction of all of Israel, proven by the rejection of the great concessionsgiven them by the Israeli Arab Arafat in Sept. 2000. The people living in the west bank, through propaganda and indoctrination of their youth, are being used as mere pawns by other Arabs, this is why they suffer.

I don't buy the premise of your title. The elite know full well that Arabs hate Jews with a passion that has been burning ever since Esau sold his birthright. There will never be peace between these two nations until God intervenes, all the efforts of men will fail.

The only way to stop this conflict is for one, or both, of the factions to be completely and utterly annihilated. This will never happen to the Jews because they have been chosen of God to fulfill His prophecy. The only other option would be to kill every Arab, and I would go so far as to say every adherent of Islam as well. This is impractical because Muslims are scattered throughout the world.

War is brewing, war is coming, the only thing we can do is turn our lives over to the One who came to redeem mankind, Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. After we have done that, we must pray.

There will never be peace between these two nations until God intervenes, all the efforts of men will fail.

G-d works through men of good will. But there may not be peace until the countries that support and sponsor terrorism are defeated and their governments replaced. Palestine is one such country.

The best - and only - way to convince Palestinians that Israel is here to stay is to throw them into the sea, along with quite a few Lebanese, Syrians, Egyptians, Saudis and assorted other Muslims. Harsh, but any reading of history tells one thats the way humanity operates.

G-d works through men of good will. But there may not be peace until the countries that support and sponsor terrorism are defeated and their governments replaced. Palestine is one such country.

I understand, KC, but we have people in our own government here in the UNited States that promote terrorism. Good grief, Clinton did more during his tenure to further the cause of terrorism throughout the world than Osama and Saddam combined.

I do not deny that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is capable of working through men to bring about peace, but for that to happen men have to desire it, God does not force his love on unrepentent people. Perhaps it is time for another worldwide bloodbath, that kind of purging may be what is needed to knock some sense into folk.

BTTT for clear thinking and rarely-seen statistical correctness:

The inclusion of the "confidence interval" marks these results as especially noteworthy -- putting in the extra effort to acknowledge that this *probably* reflects the view of the population at large says to me that they are more meticulous than the average pollster.

Perhaps it is time for another worldwide bloodbath, that kind of purging may be what is needed to knock some sense into folk.

You may be right about this in the end. And I agree that evil walks the earth and you named a prime example in Mr Clinton. To that end, if the islamists want a bloodbath, I say better now than later.

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