Susan Rice talks to the walls
Maybe they're just trying to keep her away from the Benghazi hearings in Congress. Whether or not that's the reason, Susan Rice showed up in Israel today to try to persuade the Prime Minister that only a '
two-state solution' can bring 'peace' with the 'Palestinians.'
US National Security Adviser Susan Rice told Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu on Wednesday that the US remains convinced that lasting peace
with the Palestinians can only be achieved through talks that lead to
two states living side by side in peace and security.
Rice was in Israel along with other top American officials to brief
their chief regional ally on the progress of the negotiations with Iran
over its nuclear program.
The fourth round of talks with Iran, the US and other world powers begins next week in Vienna.
I sure hope she came to discuss Iran, because right now, talking about the 'Palestinians' is a waste of time. Defense Minister Moshe 'Boogie' Yaalon came up with another of his classic pronouncements that
there is no partner for 'peace.'
"There is no partner on the other side. That is the reality. Our
soldiers are intelligent enough to understand the complex situation on
the field and to know how to deal with it. There's no immediate
solution. We can't delude ourselves," he stated.
Israel opposes Hamas-Fatah reconciliation, but it probably won't come to fruition anyway, he added.
"The Palestinian threat to dismantle the Palestinian Authority is an empty threat," Ya'alon told MKs.
"Palestinian political and economic interests are stronger than that," he said.
Most Israeli Jews agree with Yaalon. The monthly 'peace index' indicates that 68% of Israeli Jews
want the talks frozen.
The monthly Peace Index poll found that 68% of Israeli Jews believe the
decision made by the security cabinet two weeks ago was appropriate,
while 27% disagree with the move.
When asked about US President Barack Obama's assessment that neither
Israeli nor Palestinian leaders showed the political will to make
difficult decisions to sustain negotiations, only 39% of Israeli Jews
said they agreed that both sides were equally responsible for the
negotiations' failure. The percentage disagreeing with Obama was 56%.
Fifty-eight
percent of Jewish Israeli respondents said the Hamas-Fatah
reconciliation agreement was dangerous. The same number said the unity
deal would not increase legitimacy for decisions made by the Palestinian
Authority.
Thirty-one percent said the unity deal was not dangerous and 34% said it would add legitimacy to the PA's decisions.
When
asked to cite which of the following should be the most important goal
for the government to promote today, 68% gave socioeconomic-related
responses. Forty-seven percent prioritized reducing socio-economic gaps
and 21% cited the creation of affordable housing solutions.
Only
ten percent chose strengthening Israel’s military power, nine percent
said improving Israel’s political status in the international community
and nine percent reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Another great accomplishment for the Obama administration. But has Netanyahu learned his lesson yet?
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Hamas-Fatah reconciliation, John Kerry, Middle East peace process, Moshe Yaalon, Peace Index, Susan Rice
Peace index: 87% of Israelis Think Chances Are Low for Framework Agreement in Coming Months, Most Agree with Yaalon Criticism
I received the monthly peace index in my morning email and I will therefore publish it in full. A few comments at the end.
87% of Israelis Think Chances Are Low for Framework Agreement in Coming Months
Majority of Israeli Jews Back Defense Minister’s Criticism of US Foreign Policy But Say It Should Not
Have Been Made Public
Tuesday, 8 April 2014, Israel Democracy Institute, 4 Pinsker St., Jerusalem
– The Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) and Tel Aviv University have
released the monthly Peace Index poll, which this month covers Israeli
public opinion on the peace process, the Defense Minister’s criticism of
American foreign policy, European involvement
in the peace process, and a potential Turkish-Israeli reconciliation.
The Peace Process: Support for, Chances of Success, and Urgency
·
Support for Negotiations:
65% of Israelis
(62% of Israeli Jews and 80% of Israeli Arabs) favor peace negotiations
between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. 31% of Israelis (35% of
Israeli Jews and 15% of Israeli Arabs) oppose such negotiations.
·
Chances of Success of US-Brokered Negotiations:
87% of Israelis (92% of Jewish Israelis and 62% of Arab Israelis) think
chances are low that in the coming months the Palestinians and Israel,
with the mediation and help of the US administration, will succeed in
reaching a framework for a peace agreement.
(Jewish Israelis who see chances of success as low include 95% of the
self-identified right, 89% of the center, and 87% of the left.) 12% of
Israelis (7% of Jewish Israelis and 35% of Arab Israelis) think chances
for such an agreement are high.
·
Urgency to Reach an Agreement:
52% of Israelis
think that it is urgent at present to reach an agreement with the
Palestinians, while 45% do not believe it is urgent. Among the Jewish
public who think reaching an agreement is urgent are 37% of the right,
68% of the center, and 87% of the left.
Israeli Defense Minister’s Criticism of American Foreign Policy
·
Accuracy of Criticism:
65% of the Jewish
public agrees with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe “Bogie” Yaalon’s
criticism that US foreign policy shows weakness, while 27% disagree.
44% of the Arab public disagrees with Yaalon’s criticism, and 32% agree
that the US is displaying weakness.
·
Voicing Criticism Publicly:
72% of Israeli
Jews agree with the claim that though Yaalon was right in his criticism
he should not have voiced it publicly, while 25% do not agree with the
claim. 48% of Israeli Arabs disagree with the claim, while 32% agree.
·
Damage to US-Israel Cooperation:
49% of Israeli
Jews believe that criticism such as Yaalon’s – of American foreign
policy in the Middle East and elsewhere – cannot significantly damage
the political cooperation between the US and Israel, while 47% believe
that such criticism can damage cooperation. 43%
of Israeli Arabs believe that such criticism of the US can
significantly damage US-Israel cooperation, while 38% believe that it
cannot.
·
Rating Ministerial Performance:
When rating
the performance of several ministers on a scale of 1 (poor) to 10
(excellent), the Jewish public gave an average grade of 6.55 to Defense
Minister Moshe “Bogie” Yaalon, 5.45 to Foreign Minister Avigdor
Liberman, 5.38 to Health Minister Yael German, and 4.27
to Finance Minister Yair Lapid. The Arab public gave an average grade
of 5.80 to German, 4.94 to Yaalon, 3.33 to Lapid, and 3.05 to Liberman.
European Involvement in the Peace Process
·
European Fairness to Israel:
76% of Jewish
Israelis and 47% of Arab Israelis believe that Europe is not treating
Israel fairly in the context of the search for a solution to the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict, while 20% of Jewish Israelis and 42% of
Arab Israelis believe that Europe is treating Israel
fairly.
·
Assistance for Peace:
42% of Israeli Jews
state that the December European offer of “unprecedented” economic,
political, and security assistance to promote a peace agreement would
not affect their readiness to support a peace agreement; 37% state that
the offer could influence their readiness to support
a peace agreement depending on the terms of the offer, and 10% state
the offer will influence their readiness to support an agreement. 28%
of Israeli Arabs state that the European offer will influence their
readiness to support an agreement, 25% state that
the offer could influence their support depending on its terms, and 14%
stated that the offer will not affect their readiness to support an
agreement. 7% of Israeli Jews and 16% of Israeli Arabs believe that
Europe is not important to Israel and they are
not interested in any offer related to the peace process.
Turkish-Israeli Reconciliation
·
Importance of Reconciliation:
Reportedly,
a reconciliation agreement between Turkey and Israel will soon be
signed which will stipulate compensation to the families of those killed
on the
Mavi Marmara and a renewal of diplomatic relations. 74% of
Israelis think it is important, in light of the situation in the Middle
East, that Israel improve its relations with Turkey, while 23% see an
improvement in relations as not important.
·
Responsibility for Crisis in Turkish-Israeli Relations:
81% of Jewish Israelis believe Turkey is more responsible for the
crisis in relations between the two states, while 9% believe both sides
are equally responsible and 6% believe that Israel is more responsible.
Among Arab Israelis, 54% think Israel is more
responsible for the crisis, 17% think both sides are equally at fault,
and 11% think Turkey is more responsible.
This
survey, conducted on March 30 - 31, 2014, included 600 respondents who
constitute a representative sample of the adult population of Israel.
The measurement error for a sample of this size is ±4.1%.
For more information or to schedule an interview with Peace Index Co-Director Prof. Tamar Hermann, contact:
Yehoshua Oz
Director of International Communications
press@idi.org.il
A few comments. First, notice that while most Israelis think Defense Minister Yaalon should have kept his criticism of Obama-Kerry to himself, most of them agree with that criticism, and Yaalon's performance rating among Jews is higher than any other minister, and among Arabs it's among the higher ratings.
Second, most Jews still describe reaching a peace agreement as 'urgent.' This is a failing of the Right. We have not succeeded in making people understand that a peace agreement is not possible for the foreseeable future. Perhaps they don't want to understand. Seven years or so ago, I heard David Horovitz (then editor-in-chief of the JPost and now in the same position at the Times of Israel) speak at a synagogue
outside Boston. After the program ended, I went up and introduced
myself. He was already familiar with my blog. I told him that I had no
hope that there would ever be peace with the 'Palestinians.' He told me
that he could not live in Israel if he felt like I feel. I wonder if
he's still hopeful. I suspect that he is and so are the rest of the Israeli Jews who call reaching an agreement with the 'Palestinians' urgent.
Third, the Europeans have absolutely NO influence here. For a group of countries that constitutes Israel's largest export market, that's amazing. But that's what happens when you make your bias painfully obvious. It's clear to all of us that the Europeans buy from Israel because they see no choice (our products are that good) and not out of any love for Israel or guilt over their treatment of Jews for more than a millennium.
Finally, it's disappointing that they didn't ask whether people think a reconciliation with Turkey is going to happen. I wouldn't hold my breath.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, David Horovitz, European anti-Semitism, European obsession with Israel, John Kerry, Middle East peace process, Moshe Yaalon, Peace Index, Turkish obsession with Israel
Israelis to Bibi: No new initiatives
Yisrael Medad reports that the latest '
peace index' indicates that most Israelis don't want to see any new initiatives from Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Should Israel take an initiative or remain passive? Only a minority of the Jewish public (28%) agrees with the position that the Middle Eastern upheavals will create new opportunities and, hence, that Israel should make a new effort to reach a regional peace. The overwhelming majority (70%) accepts the position that the situation at the moment is unclear, and therefore it is better for Israel to remain passive and not do anything. The distribution of views among Israeli Arabs is the opposite, although not a polar opposite: while 58% of Israeli Arabs think Israel should take a peace initiative, a large minority (40%) says Israel should watch the developments in the Arab countries from the sidelines and not do anything.
If Ehud Barak's '
diplomatic tsunami' is coming, most Israelis don't believe it yet. Netanyahu should listen to 70% of the voters and not to Barack Obama.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, Israeli peace initiative, Peace Index
Israelis awakening to reality
The monthly 'peace index' for January has been released and what it shows is that most Israelis are awakening to the reality that
peace is not on the horizon (Hat Tip: IMRA).
Peace with Syria? The degree of the Jewish public’s readiness for a full peace with Syria in return for all of the Golan Heights, combined with its (dis)belief in the chances of this in the foreseeable future, is amazingly consistent over time: ever since 1994, about two-thirds oppose giving up the Golan for peace, and about the same percentage does not believe in the chances for peace with Damascus or in the sincerity of Assad’s declarations that he is interested in peace. In the Arab public, the majority is prepared for peace in return for the Golan and believes in Assad’s sincerity; as in the Jewish public, however, only a third believe in the chances that this will happen.
And with the Palestinians? A clear majority (68%) of the Jewish public thinks that the Palestinians do not see the two-state solution as the end of the road, and that even if a peace agreement is signed, the Palestinians will continue the struggle to create a Palestinian state in the entire Land of Israel. A recent survey in the territories, which was conducted by and American team, found that the majority of Palestinians indeed view the two-state formula as an interim stage, and believe the conflict will only end when a Palestinian state is established in all the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
Is there a possibility of a unilateral Palestinian declaration of independence? Fifty percent of the Jewish public thinks that, notwithstanding the stalled negotiations, the chances for a unilateral Palestinian declaration of independence are low, but a large minority (44%) sees the chances as high (this in contrast to the Arab public, in which only 28% estimate the chances as high). The Jewish public is split (48% for each side) on whether Israel can count on an American veto in the United Nations to prevent an overall recognition of the Palestinian state without a peace agreement (a majority of the Arabs expect a U.S. veto). This is apparently one of the reasons that a Jewish plurality (47% as opposed to 39%) views the present situation, in which there is no progress in negotiations, as bad for Israel’s national interests. Among the Arabs two-thirds see it that way.
Should organizations’ funding sources be investigated? A majority of the Jewish public (66.5%) and a small majority of the Arab public (53%) favors investigating the funding sources of the human rights and peace organizations. However, a much larger Jewish majority (84%, and a 62% majority of the Arabs) considers that, if it is decided to investigate the foreign funding, all the organizations should be investigated whatever their political positions. Seventy-two percent of the Jewish public think the investigation should be conducted by the legal authorities rather than by the Knesset, while only 14.5% say the opposite.
There were a number of articles in the weekend newspapers that warn that what's important about Palileaks is not the documents themselves but the motivations for publishing them and the reactions to them. David Horovitz wrote a
long piece in the JPost asking what would happen if the 'Palestinians' actually said, "yes, this is what we said and it's time to realize that we have to compromise." But even Horovitz admits that's fanciful.
Labels: David Horovitz, Land for peace, Peace Index, two-state solution
