2, 4, 6, 8, Israel is a Jewish state
When I started going to rallies regularly back in the 1970's, we used to chant, "2, 4, 6, 8, Israel is a Jewish state (3, 5, 7, 9, there's no such thing as 'Palestine')." Daniel Pipes points out that the issue is and always has been the Arab unwillingness to accept a Jewish state of Israel located in the land of Israel. But the concept of a Jewish state of Israel was included in the UN partition resolution that sanctioned the State of Israel in 1947, and therefore is legally Israel's raison d'etre.According to figures that Pipes presents, about 20% of the Arab world is willing to accept Israel as a Jewish state 'under the right circumstances.' The problem is that number is skewed by the relatively larger percentage of Egyptians (with whom we have had a peace treaty for the last 30 years) as compared with other Arabs.
If Palestinian politicians reject Israel's Jewish nature, what about the Palestinian and the broader Arab and Muslim publics? Polls and other evidence suggest a long-term average of 20 percent acceptance of Israel, whether in the Mandatory period or now, whether Muslims in Canada or Palestinians in Lebanon.Sorry, but I don't find that encouraging at all. That 20% is consistent back to the Mandatory period (1919-48). In other words, after 90 years, no more Arabs are willing to accept us today than were willing to accept us then. So what is there on which to build? And why - if we have been unable to do it for the last 90 years - is anyone hopeful that will change?
To learn more about current Arab opinion, the Middle East Forum commissioned Pechter Middle East Polls to ask a simple question of a thousand adults in each of four countries: "Islam defines [your state]; under the right circumstances, would you accept a Jewish State of Israel?" (In Lebanon, the question differed slightly: "Islam defines most states in the Middle East; under the right circumstances, would you accept a Jewish state of Israel?")
The results: 26 percent of Egyptians and 9 percent of urban Saudi subjects answered (in November 2009) in the affirmative, as did 9 percent of Jordanians and 5 percent of Lebanese (in April 2010).
The polls reveal broad consensus across such differences as occupation, socio-economic standing, and age. For no discernable reason, more Egyptian women and Saudi and Jordanian men accept a Jewish Israel than their gender counterparts, whereas among the Lebanese both sexes rank similarly. Some significant variations exist, however: as one would expect in Lebanon, 16 percent of (largely Christian) North Lebanon accepts a Jewish Israel in contrast to just 1 percent in the (mostly Shi'ite) Bekaa Valley.
More significantly, weighting these responses by the size of their populations (respectively, 79, 29, 6, and 4 million) translates into an overall average of 20 percent acceptance of Israel's Jewishness – neatly confirming the existing percentage.
Although 20 percent constitutes a small minority, its consistency over time and place offers encouragement. That one-fifth of Muslims, Arabs, and even Palestinians accept Israel as a Jewish state suggests that, despite a near-century of indoctrination and intimidation, a base for resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict does exist.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:16 PM
4 Comments:
Acceptance...under the 'right circumstances.'
Another load of drivel.
What circumstances are every other state recognized as?
Anyway, what in the HeLL does this have to do with sovereignty?
...back seat drivers authorities all.
I am. This article is how >I< see it. My heart boils not just as a solution but the fact that others
cannot see. They, (palestenians, and others) are/would do this. Accept Isreals land and it people. It is simple Isreal is Isreal for Isreal. I have faith that maybe just this once and last time Isreal can become all, because I'm beginning to see Obama as not very american and loosing it's reasons. I do not carry relegion though Isreal is dearest to me because it is where it started it is who I like. It is the only stuggle within me if because everything else I'm supposing just a nobody or stupid and do not hold a degree of what is in me and mind. Isreal
Decades of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel propaganda throughout the Arab World has had a profound effect. And one can't unring that bell.
There will be no peace in the Middle East in our lifetime.
There will be no peace in the Middle East in our lifetime.
But you see NormanF, the statement that was made by our former President that there can not be peace in the ME unless the Palestinians have statehood, did not hurt the Palestinians but Israel.
Israel will be hung because of it. So you can say there will be no peace in our lifetime (which I believe) but it will be hell to pay for Israel.
As for Antisemitism in the Arab world, it is equally as bad in the Christian world.
Antisemitism has had worse then a profound affect on Jews and Israel. We bare the brunt of it and it is destroying us all. I personally wish it were only decades that we have suffered. Every Jew past and present carry it.
The Arab world which reeks with Antisemitism is merely enabled by the rest who know better. (who are antisemites to one degree or another no matter if they know it or admit it.)
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