(National Interest) Benny Morris - A poll run by American pollster Stanley Greenberg, conducted jointly by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion, found that 61% of Palestinians rejected the American-Israeli formulation for a settlement of the conflict based on two states for two peoples, one for the Arabs and one for the Jews. Only 34% supported a "two-states-for-two-peoples" solution. 66% adopted the PLO-PA gradualist approach of a "two-stage solution" - approving a first stage in which there would be two states before moving onto "stage two" with the establishment of one Palestinian Arab-majority state over all of Palestine. Perhaps the international quartet should take this poll, and what it tells us, into account when considering Netanyahu's fears regarding the Palestinian leadership's real aims in pressing on with its intention to unilaterally declare independence and obtain international endorsement of Palestinian statehood in the West Bank and Gaza along the 1967 lines. Abbas' people, if this poll is to be believed, clearly regard this diplomatic initiative only as part of "stage one," and nothing more.
2011-07-21 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive