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David Frankfurter brought his family to Ra'anana, Israel from their native Sydney, Australia in 1992. He is a business consultant, corporate executive and writer who frequently comments on the Middle East conflict.
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By David Frankfurter
November 25, 2004
British traditions are so quaint. Every year, at around this time, the government writes a speech for the queen to deliver, in which she declares her government's program for the coming year. Each short item is supported by a short statement by the relevant government department, explaining what it really meant.
In the last sentence of yesterday's annual speech, Her Majesty declared: "My Government will continue to support efforts to build peace in the Middle East, to promote democratic reform and reduce conflict and extremism." A noble and balanced goal. One that all sides will see as even-handed, from a fair and honest broker, who can nudge the other toward the goal of peace they all aspire to.
The Foreign & Commonwealth Office explains in a carefully worded statement that Britain supports a two state solution. Viable Palestine and Secure Israel. The way to get there is the Roadmap. For each and every criticism or demand from one side, there is a balancing criticism or demand of the other. It is violence and tension that has stopped both sides from implementing it. But the vast majority of Israelis and Palestinians want their leaders to work for peace.
This desire by the vast majority of both sides for peace is the logical glue that sticks the whole policy together. Both sides want peace. Just push their leaders a little in the right direction and they will meet in the middle.
As an Israeli, I have the tools to verify that the overwhelming majority of us want our leaders to work for peace. I read it in the papers. I see it on TV. I hear it in the cafeteria at work. I hear it in Synagogue and when I stand at the supermarket checkout. The desire for our leaders to do everything possible for peace with our neighbours is about the only issue that wins close to 100% agreement amongst the Israelis I know. We may disagree on the strategies or tactics to get there. The thing one person thinks as critical to achieve peace, a second person thinks will lead to the destruction of the State of Israel. But at least the objective is the same -- secure peace.
I have no way to directly judge whether the vast majority of Palestinians want their leaders to work for peace. Their TV and newspapers are in Arabic and not accessible to me. On the basis of my religion, I am excluded from traveling in their cities and villages for fear of my life, so I can't talk to those many Palestinians who speak English.
So I have to rely on English language reports of what Palestinians think.
The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research asks sophisticated questions, and paints a complex picture. In September 2004, their survey showed that each question about the acceptability of Palestinian violence against Israelis, no matter how worded, gets majority support -- sometimes up to 90%. Even after full Israeli withdrawal, Palestinian society is split down the middle on support for violent attacks emanating from Gaza.
The bright point is that 82.5% of Palestinians support a mutual cessation of violence. Should the Palestinian leadership reach a full peace agreement, 75% of the Palestinians would support reconciliation between the State of Palestine and the State of Israel. Even so, 47% think that reconciliation, even after peace, is impossible.
And these are exactly the contradictions that many analysts think push Israeli public opinion toward tactics of warfare hoping to achieve a strategy of peace. The argument is that in the face of 86% of Palestinians saying that their security and safety, and that of their family, is not assured, Palestinians would like a temporary cease fire or hudna while they take breath and rearm. They are not willing to give a mandate for their leadership to negotiate real long-term peace, and if the leadership were to take the initiative, a sizeable minority do not believe long term reconciliation with Israel is possible. According to this view, the best case Israel can look forward to is a simmering, porous border, requiring a constant state of high military alert . Full-scale warfare just waiting to erupt. A similar situation to that with Lebanon -- but without the natural terrain providing some protection. Constant skirmishes, abductions, rockets into civilian areas and occasional casualties.
The Birzeit University's Development Studies Program survey of June 2004, which surveyed Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and claims a ?b3% accuracy, asked more direct questions.
To the question "Do you support return to negotiations with the Israelis?" 53.2% of Palestinians said "No".
To the question "Do you think that there is a chance for peaceful coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis on the basis of justice (according to UN resolutions)?" 54.3% of Palestinians said "No".
So, it would seem that 50% of the Foreign Office's underlying assumption is correct. The vast majority of Israelis want their leaders to work for peace. The Palestinians are less clear.
There is much work to be done in reeducating a whole population toward peace before the assuming that with a bit of pressure on the leadership peace will magically appear.
If the Foreign Office had paid attention to these nuances, they may have added the Roadmap initial requirement of a cessation of incitement to hatred of Israel and Jews to their demands of the Palestinians. Before questions of achieving peace can posed, televisions, schools, newspapers, summer camps, political speeches and mosques must stop being filled with Jew-hatred and idolisation of terrorists.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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