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Do Palestinians Want a State?

[Ynet News] Sever Plocker - More and more Mideast affairs researchers are today responding to the question about whether the Palestinians want a state with a "no." Hussein Agha and Robert Malley argued in the New York Review of Books on June 11: "Unlike Zionism, for whom statehood was the central objective, the Palestinian fight was primarily about other matters....Today, the idea of Palestinian statehood is alive, but mainly outside of Palestine." They argue that the notion of a Palestinian state is perceived as a foreign import. Historian Benny Morris concludes that the Palestinians never adopted the notion of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state existing alongside Israel, regardless of its borders, and that the Palestinian national movement views Palestine as an Arab and Muslim state in its entirety. The Palestinians will not agree to either divide or share the country. They continue to cling to the revolutionary dream of "national liberation," and until this materializes, they prefer to exist as a national rather than a political entity - one that has no obligations and is always seen as a victim, in its own eyes and in the eyes of the world.
2009-07-09 06:00:00
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