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Do Palestinians Want a State Alongside Israel?

(New Republic) Jonathan Chait - A 2009 poll shows that 71% of Palestinians deem it essential that their state comprise all of Israel and the territories. (Only 17% of Israelis deem it essentially that their state control all that land.) From the Palestinian perspective, Israel is a colonial state that was suddenly dropped on their head as a result of European crimes. Most Palestinians seem to think, like Helen Thomas said, that the fair solution is for the Jews to go back to Europe. From this perspective, Palestinian political tactics are not an endless series of blunders but a perfectly rational strategy of alternating guerrilla or terrorist attacks on Israel with ceaseless political pressure designed to make Israelis, like the Crusaders, unwilling to pay the price of defending their state over however many decades or centuries it takes. If it became clear that the Palestinians' primary goal was to create a homeland living peacefully next to a Jewish state, the Israeli political spectrum would shift back toward a more dovish government.
2010-10-06 09:07:55
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