Dear Friend of Israel, Friend of FLAME:
For decades, FLAME has maintained that the Palestinian people do not want peace and that efforts to force Israel to make concessions for peace are a waste. This position has been confirmed by actions taken by Palestinian leaders over the decades---including the rejection of numerous peace offers from Israel and brokered by the United States.
But just as important as their rejectionist diplomatic choices---"never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity" for peace---Palestinian leaders have waged an unrelenting propaganda war of hate among their own people against Israel and the notion of peaceful co-existence with Jews. Rather than prepare Palestinians for peace, Mahmoud Abbas and Yasser Arafat before him have assured their people that they will one day conquer Israel---"from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea"---and expel the Jews once and for all.
Now a poll taken among West Bank and Gazan Palestinian Arabs demonstrates, shockingly, how well these "leaders" have done their poisonous work. As reported in last week's FLAME Hotline, some two-thirds of Palestinians say they reject the idea of a permanent two-state solution, favoring instead an interim agreement that allows them to complete their conquest of the Holy Land.
This week's FLAME Hotline reports the full results of that poll, which proves how distressingly far the Palestinian people are from embracing a two-state solution and explains why no Palestinian leader who values his head (they are all men, of course) would agree to a true peace deal with Israel.
Our featured analysis of this survey is by the Jerusalem Post's chief political correspondent and analyst, Gil Hoffman, but first I want to give you a few introductory thoughts on this revealing research by commentator Evelyn Gordon, who puts it better than I ever could in a recent article in Commentary:
Here's a poll you will not see covered in your daily paper, because it throws the real cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into uncomfortably stark relief: Asked whether they agreed with President Barack Obama's statement that "there should be two states: Palestine as the homeland for the Palestinian people and Israel as the homeland for the Jewish people," only 34 percent said yes; 61 percent disagreed. Moreover, a whopping 66 percent said the Palestinians' goal should not be a permanent two-state solution, but a two-state solution as an interim stage en route to the ultimate goal of a single Palestinian state in all the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea---a goal that amply explains their opposition to recognizing Israel as the Jewish homeland.
This was a serious poll, conducted by American pollster Stanley Greenberg and the Beit Sahour-based Palestinian Center for Public Opinion by means of face-to-face interviews in Arabic with 1,010 adults in the West Bank and Gaza.
Good question: Why haven't we read about this poll in the New York Times or USA Today or even the Wall Street Journal? Because the results undermine the United States' entire Middle East policy for the last 20 years---our naïve belief that the Palestinians actually want a peaceful settlement.
While I believe it's important for you (a confirmed friend of Israel) to read these revealing new data, it's just as important for others to see these poll results. So, as usual, I urge you, using the Forward to a Friend button below, to pass these persuasive findings along to your friends, family, and colleagues. Remember: We are front-line activists in the public relations battle for the hearts and minds of the American people. Israel needs more and more of us spreading the truth . . . today.
Best Regards,
Jim Sinkinson
Vice President, FLAME
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As you know, despite Israel's inspiring example, she gets regularly "dissed" in the media, and we pro-Israel advocates too often find ourselves on the defensive. But FLAME has begun to take a different tack in its hasbarah (clarifying) messages: Most recently we're calling the world's attention to the Palestinians' pathetic record in peace talks with Israel over the decades. In the hope that you, too, believe we should take the offensive against Israel's enemies, I offer FLAME's latest position paper: "Are the Palestinians Ready for Peace? Why Arab instransigence makes peace most unlikely." This piece is now appearing in magazines and newspapers, including college newspapers, with a combined circulation of nearly 5 million people. In addition, it is being sent to every member of the U.S. Congress. If you agree that this kind of public relations effort on Israel's behalf is critical, I urge you to support us. Remember: FLAME's powerful ability to influence public opinion comes from individuals like you, one by one. I hope you'll consider giving a donation now, as you're able---with $500, $250, $100, or even $18. (Remember, your donation to FLAME is tax deductible.) To donate online, just go to http://www.factsandlogic.org/make_a_donation.html. Now more than ever we need your support to ensure that Israel gets the support it needs---from the U.S. Congress, from President Obama, and from the American people.
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As of today, some 9,119 Israel supporters receive the FLAME Hotline at no charge every week. Won't you join us to start receiving these timely updates: Won't you become subscriber number 9,120 today? Just go to free subscription.
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6 in 10 Palestinians reject 2-state solution, survey finds
73% of 1,010 Palestinians in W. Bank, Gaza agree with the Hamas Charter quote, 'hadith,' about the need to kill Jews hiding behind stones, trees.
by Gil Hoffman, Jerusalem Post, July 15, 2011
Only one in three Palestinians (34 percent) accepts two states for two peoples as the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to an intensive, face-to-face survey in Arabic of 1,010 Palestinian adults in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip completed this week by American pollster Stanley Greenberg.
The poll, which has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, was conducted in partnership with the Beit Sahour-based Palestinian Center for Public Opinion and sponsored by the Israel Project, an international nonprofit organization that provides journalists and leaders with information about the Middle East.
The Israel Project is trying to reach out to the Arab world to promote "people-to-people peace." The poll appears to indicate that the organization has a difficult task ahead.
Respondents were asked about US President Barack Obama's statement that "there should be two states: Palestine as the homeland for the Palestinian people and Israel as the homeland for the Jewish people."
Just 34% said they accepted that concept, while 61% rejected it.
Sixty-six percent said the Palestinians' real goal should be to start with a two-state solution but then move to it all being one Palestinian state.
Asked about the fate of Jerusalem, 92% said it should be the capital of Palestine, 1% said the capital of Israel, 3% the capital of both, and 4% a neutral international city.
Seventy-two percent backed denying the thousands of years of Jewish history in Jerusalem, 62% supported kidnapping IDF soldiers and holding them hostage, and 53% were in favor or teaching songs about hating Jews in Palestinian schools.
When given a quote from the Hamas Charter about the need for battalions from the Arab and Islamic world to defeat the Jews, 80% agreed. Seventy-three percent agreed with a quote from the charter (and a hadith, or tradition ascribed to the prophet Muhammad) about the need to kill Jews hiding behind stones and trees.
But only 45% said they believed in the charter's statement that the only solution to the Palestinian problem was jihad.
The survey's more positive findings included that only 22% supported firing rockets at Israeli cities and citizens and that two-thirds preferred diplomatic engagement over violent "resistance."
Among Palestinians in general 65% preferred talks and 20% violence. In the West Bank it was 69-28%, and in Gaza, 59- 32%.
Asked whether they backed seeking a Palestinian state unilaterally in the UN, 64% said yes. The number was 57% in the West Bank and 79% in Gaza. Thirty-seven percent said the UN action would bring a Palestinian state closer, 16% said it would set back the establishment of a state, and 44% said it would make no difference.
When asked what Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's top priorities should be, 83% said creating jobs. Just 4% said getting the UN to recognize a Palestinian state, and only 2% said peace talks with Israel.
Israel Project president Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi said she was encouraged that the Arab Spring would bring more accuracy to Arab media and by the 59% of Palestinians who are on Facebook. The Israel Project has 80,723 friends for its Arabic site, which has had 9.5 million page views in two months.
"Some of the numbers in the poll are discouraging, but we are trying to change them," she said at a Jerusalem press conference in which Greenberg presented the findings.
Greenberg said the survey proved that there was a big need for public education and leadership on the Palestinian side.
Greenberg and Laszlo Mizrahi have presented the findings to President Shimon Peres, opposition leader Tzipi Livni, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Vice Premier Moshe Ya'alon and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's senior adviser, Ron Dermer.
Next week, they have meetings scheduled in the White House and the Pentagon. Israeli leaders told Greenberg and Laszlo Mizrahi they were encouraged by Palestinian support for talks.
"The Palestinians want solutions, not revolutions," Peres told them according to Laszlo Mizrahi.
