The Middle East Forum commissioned the Smith Institute to carry out a survey to find out what what Israelis think about convincing Palestinians that they lost their century-long war with Zionism.
what does the Jewish Israeli public think about convincing Palestinians that they lost their century-long war with Zionism, that the gig is up? In other words, what do Israelis think about winning? To find out, the Middle East Forum commissioned the Smith Institute to carry out a survey of 700 adult Israeli Jews. Carried out on June 27-28, the poll has a margin of error of 3.7%.
It reveals a widespread belief that a Palestinian recognition of defeat will eventually lead to an acceptance of Israel as the Jewish state, thereby ending the conflict.
Palestinian defeat: “A peace agreement with the Palestinians will only be possible once the Palestinian leadership recognizes the fact that it has been defeated in its struggle against Israel.” Overall, 58% of respondents agree, with opinion deeply polarized by political outlook: 69% on the Right concur but only 16% on the Left do so.
Israeli victory: “The reason that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict still continues is that none of the military operations or diplomatic engagements with the Palestinian leadership have led to Israeli victory.” This resembles the first statement but reverses it; doing so increases the positive responses to 65% of the Israeli public. More surprising, the results show that, across the entire political spectrum from Right to Left, an awareness exists that Israel needs to win.
They also show that a majority of every subgroup of voter – male and female, young and old, adherents of every kind of Judaism, supporters of every Jewish political party represented in parliament – concur with this sentiment.
US embassy: “Moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem will be seen by the majority of Palestinians as a defeat.” The same percentage of respondents, 65%, also agrees with this assertion, with the Right supporting it only slightly more than the Left (68% to 58%). That religious Jews heavily endorse this statement (89% of those who identify with the ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism), much more so than the secular (53% of Kulanu Party supporters) does not come as a surprise. That, again, a majority of every sub-group backs the idea does surprise, however.
Jewish state: “Israeli victory can only be achieved once the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state.” A similar 67% agree with this statement but the breakdown is, as with the first statement, acutely political: 76% of the Right agrees and 26% of the Left does. On the other hand, party affiliation makes almost no difference (both UTJ and Kulanu members come in at 71%) with the single, spectacular exception of Meretz (which weighs in at 33%).
What to make of all these numbers? That the four parallel questions all win majority support points to the profound evolution of the Israeli public since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1992. No longer does it have faith that good-will gestures will win reciprocity from the Palestinians, put credence in Palestinian leaders, or believe in appeasement. The consistent support for these propositions, ranging only from 58% to 67% support, confirms that most Israeli Jews want a different and tough policy.
The surprise comes in the turmoil below the stately overall numbers.
That two of them (defeat and Jewish state) divide along Right-Left lines and two of them (victory and US embassy) do not points to the fact that choosing which issue to promote has critical importance to who supports what. Backing the US Embassy move to Jerusalem and Palestinian acceptance of Israel as the Jewish state look similar but attitudes range widely. For example, twice as many supporters of the hard-Left Meretz Party back the embassy issue as they do the Jewish state one (67% vs. 33%).
That most Israeli Jewish adults want Palestinian defeat and Israeli victory confirms the utility of the July 11 launch of the Knesset Israel Victory Caucus. Co-chaired by Oded Forer (Yisrael Beytenu) and Yaakov Peri (Yesh Atid), the caucus seeks to explore Israeli strategies and tactics once the US government gives a green light for an Israeli victory.
“Debating the peace process to most Israelis,” commented a former Israeli prime ministerial aide back in 2013, “is the equivalent of debating the color of the shirt you will wear when landing on Mars.” It’s time for a shift in focus away from hopeless and counterproductive negotiations to ending the conflict the time-proven way: Through victory.
The author is president of the Middle East Forum.
Daniel Pipes seems to have lost his common sense. You can’t win a war by “declaring victory.” That is just a way of saving face when one loses a war. This phrase first surfaced toward the end of the Vietnam war, when some politicians suggested that Americans withdraw unilaterally from Vietnam, in effect conceding defeat, while claiming that it was victory to save face. The Nixon administration did not endorse the phrase, but it did withdraw unilaterally from South Vietnam, allowing the Hanoi regime to win the war after a brief “decent interval. Obama declared a victory in Iraq in 1911, and withdrew all American combat troops, thereby surrendering to Iran and IS, which partitioned the country between themselves. Because both Vietnam and Iraq are a long way from the U.S., and it is not entirely clear why the USG needed to fight these two wars, it was possibly for the U.S. to
withdraw and concede defeat. Pipes seems to think that wealthy and well-connected Israelis could withdraw from Israel, and that this would be good thing. But what about all of the working class, Middle class, and poor Jews, the religious, those of Mideast, North African South Asian, Ethiopian etc. , who are the overwhelming majority of Israelis, and whose only home is Israel? Pipes seems to want the Israeli rich and ‘intellectuals” to “declare victory” and withdraw from Israel, allowing most of their fellow Jews to be massacred. I had expected better of Daniel Pipes.
The issue of an Israeli victory over the Arabs cannot be achieved by proxy. Moving the US embassy to Jerusalem is a move by the US, not be the Israelis. While the Arabs may see this as a defeat, it is against US and not Israel. Israel needs to solve this problem for herself, no if’s when’s, but’s or anything else.
The concept or doctrine promoting victory, winning in war will never be made part of the Netanyahu aggregate.
He, himself is solely interested on himself and if at all possible, getting his Nobel.
This article, whilst interesting because of the seemingly different approach and banishment of the usual defeatism of the average Israeli General, is mainly just wishful thinking. I’m sorry to dash hopes, but, whilst the Squatter Arabs’ leaders may be smart enough to know that their game has now been played out and no more cash will be rolling in, the people they have brainwashed for the past 100 years won’t know this. And moreover they won’t accept it, they will terrorise on and on, waning maybe sometimes, but getting new leaders, even underground, will surge back. They HAVE to be thrown out of the country and so completely flattened-the way Chaka Zulu used to flatten his enemies- and wiped out.
Jews have neen taught for thousands of years that the Land of israel belongs to them, and after a generation or two, the Arabim will feel the same, and their own self delusion powers will convince them that they are reallly Canaanites and Phoenicians, all related to the kingdoms that Joshua “occupied” …………….. ,
Again, the only way to do it is to clear them out from the country completely and NEVER let even one back in. But today’s Jews are too bean-headed to see the crux of the matter, they prefer to talk, talk, make “agreements” that they know the Arabim won’t keep, but they’ve become so Westernised that they won’t be able to commit TOTAL WAR on their mortal enemy. It shows in the fact that there are so many laws that protect terrorists, that they’ve freed murderers in exchange for a few bones, and they have allowed the High Court to prevent them from receiving their just deserts, and taken it meekly, quoting legalities and “Tikun Olams” until one gets sick just thinking about the stupidity. Tis nonsense was pushed to the forefront by the Pharisees AFTER the Roman defeat, just to show how really nice we were, and also to survive. Well we survived, but forgot to become proud Jews again.
Now they are ignoring the very doable “Jordan Is Palestine” project, and giving away large tracts of land to build up Arab towns and cities. It’s enough to make a real Jew SICK. We should have known it would come out this way when they were allowing illegal Arab homes to be built in their thousands, and going through the motions (only under pressure) of demolishing them in their tens. I must stop here, because it makes no difference what I post, other than allowing my feelings to be expressed. All the other blather-blather means nothing..very scholarly and legalistic and righteous, but won’t make a damned bit of difference. Israel is locked in a death struggle and doesn’t realise it.
A mild example of the lethargy that only Jews on the brink of destruction could show…..look what they’ve allowd South Tel Aviv to become…right under their noses…..and they’re criticizing Germany and France for allowing the Islamist excesses there….. As I said, it’s enough to make one sick…