by Daniel Pipes, National Review Online
When a major Arab state would finally sign a peace treaty with Israel, it was long assumed, the Arab-Israeli conflict would end. The Egypt-Israel peace treaty of 1979, however, buried that expectation; it had the perverse effect of making other states and also the Egyptian populace more anti-Zionist.
The 1980s gave birth to a hope that, instead, Palestinian recognition of Israel would close the conflict. The total failure of the 1993 Declaration of Principles (also known as the Oslo Accords) then buried that expectation.
Ehud Olmert (right) demanded, without success, that Mahmoud Abbas recognize Israel as the Jewish state.
What now? Starting about 2007, a new focus has emerged, of winning acceptance of Israel as a sovereign Jewish state. Israel’s former prime minister Ehud Olmert set the terms: “I do not intend to compromise in any way over the issue of the Jewish state. This will be a condition for our recognition of a Palestinian state.”
Olmert was Israel’s worst prime minister but he got this one right. Arab-Israeli diplomacy has dealt with a myriad of subsidiary issues while tiptoeing around the conflict’s central issue: “Should there be a Jewish state?” Disagreement over this answer – rather than over Israel’s boundaries, its exercise of self defense, its control of the Temple Mount, its water consumption, its housing construction in West Bank towns, diplomatic relations with Egypt, or the existence of a Palestinian state – is the key issue.
Palestinian leaders responded, with howls of outrage, declaring that they “absolutely refused” to accept Israel as a Jewish state. They even pretended to be shocked at the notion of a state defined by religion, although their own “Constitution of the State of Palestine,” third draft, states that “Arabic and Islam are the official Palestinian language and religion.” Olmert’s efforts went nowhere.
On taking over the prime ministry in early 2009, Binyamin Netanyahu reiterated Olmert’s point in his diplomacy. Regrettably, the Obama administration endorsed the Palestinian position, again sidelining the Israeli demand. (Instead, it focuses on housing for Jews in Jerusalem. Talk about the heart of the issue.)
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.
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.
Would-be peacemakers must direct their attention to increasing the size of this moderate cohort. Getting from 20 percent to, say, 60 percent would fundamentally shift the politics of the Middle East, displacing Israel from its exaggerated role and releasing the peoples of this blighted region to address their real challenges. Not Zionism but such, oh, minor problems as autocracy, brutality, cruelty, conspiracism, religious intolerance, apocalypticism, political extremism, misogyny, slavery, economic backwardness, brain drain, capital flight, corruption, and drought.
Mr. Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.
Again?
🙂 I can’t honestly say that my past experience with Tina and those erotic memories do not influence me today. 😉
Again?
FX Gold right now $1246.1
This keeps up I’ll buy a private island.
Finger aside much better, much better. Keep em coming, see, trial and error is best way to go. Don’t ya think?
Didn’t like those Asians, eh?
How about this one?
Greek debt bailout makes no sense in any language
Commentary: European Union and the euro are broken
Bond and currency investors have a much more cynical view. They savaged the debt of nations that have pledged to pay for the bailout, even as they mildly boosted the value of profligate nations that are the bailout’s targets.
Equity and credit investors can’t both be right — and they’re not. This European package of paper and promises is likely to end up on the scrap heap of history faster than you can say, ”auf wiedersehen, adieu, arrivederci, bye-bye,” because it has little credibility with those who count the most — potential buyers of the new mountain of debt.
Lights out for Europe
Once equity investors figure this out, it will be lights out for Europe. Start the clock for a new Dark Ages: the whole Continent will be a massive short. For risk-oriented traders who wish to bet with the bears, the instrument of choice will be ProShares UltraShort Europe
Jon Markman’s Speculations
May 12, 2010, 4:15 a.m. EDT · Recommend · Post:
Greek debt bailout makes no sense in any language
Commentary: European Union and the euro are broken
SEATTLE (MarketWatch) — Stock markets boomed around the world on Monday to celebrate what some are calling the “nuclear option” against Greek, Spanish and Portuguese debt woes — a $1 trillion package of loans, guarantees and debt purchases backed by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
Bond and currency investors have a much more cynical view. They savaged the debt of nations that have pledged to pay for the bailout, even as they mildly boosted the value of profligate nations that are the bailout’s targets.
News Hub: Gold at all-time high
Equity and credit investors can’t both be right — and they’re not. This European package of paper and promises is likely to end up on the scrap heap of history faster than you can say, ”auf wiedersehen, adieu, arrivederci, bye-bye,” because it has little credibility with those who count the most — potential buyers of the new mountain of debt.
Lights out for Europe
Once equity investors figure this out, it will be lights out for Europe. Start the clock for a new Dark Ages: the whole Continent will be a massive short. For risk-oriented traders who wish to bet with the bears, the instrument of choice will be ProShares UltraShort Europe /quotes/comstock/13*!epv/quotes/nls/epv (EPV 24.17, +0.62, +2.63%) .
May 12, 2010, 5:38 a.m. EDT · Recommend (2) · Post:
Gold futures top $1,239 an ounce
Safe-haven appeal of precious metal draws investors
By Polya Lesova & Myra P. Saefong, MarketWatch
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — Gold futures surged above $1,239 an ounce on Wednesday, extending their sharp gains after ending at a record high in the previous session, as the safe-haven appeal of the precious metal continued to draw investors.
Gold for June delivery, the most active contract, hit an intraday high of $1,239.60 an ounce in electronic trading on Globex.
The contract was last up $17.90 to $1,238.20 an ounce.
reagan what do you think?
FX Gold $1242.3
Silver $19.5
It’s mot that I am unappreciative but is this the best you could come with?
To celebrate you dragging Israpundit across the 100,000 barrier, here is a gift:
Asian
American
Bandstand
And yet…still licorice-whipless.
Gold hit over 1230$ right now 1228.4 silver $19.3 Gold can go to 2k by the end of the year.
IMF, along with a number of major national banks, has agreed to join in a trillion-dollar package to defend the overpriced euro against speculators.
The Americans who rightly decry their government’s $2 billion-a-year aid to Israel should start questioning their administration over the hundredfold greater aid given to the EU. A financial meltdown in the euro zone would have greatly improved the US economy as international transactions moved from the euro back to dollars. The very existence of the euro undercuts America’s most profitable export—bank notes.
In anypopulation in any culture there will always be that small % that for whatever reason vote in contradiction to the majority. Some didn’t
understand the question. Some never herd of Israel and never heard of a Jew,never saw a Jew etc. Some just ans to get rid of the questioner or
pollster. Some ans according to what they think they are supposed to ans. etc. That’s the twenty %. You can’t even say Pipes views the glass
half full, not when 80% want to see the Jews dead and gone. Pipes supported Oslo, the peace treaty with Egypt and evacuation from Gaza. He
supported the Likud Leadership in ea. case and lauded and justified their so called concessions to the Arabs
Those are his expert bonafides. When he has been coorrect it is only from the benefit of after the fact and for the last few years he has
promoted Israeli leftist positions like the essay above. I can’t prove it but I would like to know who finances his think tank. I’ll bet they
connect to his public positions on Israel and the Arabs.
Pipes for the past 10 years or so has an abysmal record for a self proclaimed expert on the ME. He just stopped calling em right and being on
the right side of the issues.
The Euro had a big rally immediately following the announcement of the one trillion dollar bailout package.
But as of today’s close, it had given back all of that gain.
Can’t be too encouraged when a trillion dollars buys a rally that lasts just a few hours.
Collective insanity, which tends to be the default human condition.
The Arabs want the Jews dead.
Despite sixty-two years of unremitting hostility and four wars of annihilation, no one wants to believe that the Arabs are sincere.
Especially the Israelis, who keep trying to mollify their would-be executioners.
Meanwhile, the world bemoans Jews building apartments.
Crock.
Of.
Shit.
Only eighty percent of Arabs want the Jews dead?
And Pipes is supposedly the uber neocon.
They just aren’t making Zionazis like they used to.
Here is my ultra-right wing Likudnik take: There will never be peace because religious dogma dictates that Muslims cannot accept Jews.
Period.
All the rest is nonsense…group lunacy at the highest levels.
These serial peace processes are proof that the leaders of the world are crazier than David (Son Of Sam) Berkowitz.
Madness.