A new Israeli poll shows that the Israeli public is opposed to establishing a Palestinian Arab state alongside Israel. The poll, conducted for Channel 12’s ‘Meet the Press’ program, found that a plurality of 49% of Israelis oppose a Palestinian Arab state, as opposed to 43.8% who support its creation. The remainder of the Israeli public did not know what position to take and indicated support for neither proposal (‘Poll: Majority against a Palestinian state,’ Israel National News, November 9, 2019).
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein and Chairman Mark Levenson, Esq. said, “It is not surprising that a plurality of Israelis do not support the creation of a Palestinian Arab state, given especially the developments of recent years.
“At this point, Israelis have not only experienced the trauma of the Oslo peace process foundering in bloodshed, terrorism and recrimination, but also years of anti-Israel campaigns orchestrated by Palestinian Arab organizations and their foreign colleagues aimed at blackening Israel’s name and reputation internationally, including the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
“Israelis also know that no amount of concessions to Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) will serve to placate the Iranian Shia terrorist regime or its Hezbollah or Hamas clients, all of whom actively seek Israel’s destruction.
“Israelis have witnessed decades of Palestinian Arabs cheering and celebrating the murder of Jews, glorifying dead terrorists, paying salaries to jailed terrorists and stipends to the families of dead ones, not to mention mounting endless diplomatic campaigns against Israel in every conceivable international forum.
“The message has been crystal clear for years: the Palestinian Arabs do not seek peace with the Jewish state of Israel and hope one day to supplant it when the opportunity arises.
Further proof of this is that the Palestinian Arabs have been made generous offers of Statehood three times in the last 19 years and seven times in the last 80 years-and all have been rejected without a counteroffer.
“Given these facts, why would Israelis favor the creation of a Palestinian Arab state on Israel’s doorstep, especially given the Israeli experience of exponentially increased terrorism and three major wars following its 2005 withdrawal from Gaza?
“Just today, in less than 24 hours, more than 150 rockets from Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists in Gaza were fired at Israeli civilians. School are closed in Tel Aviv and throughout the south of Israel; hundreds of thousands of Israelis are in bomb shelters; businesses are closed. It’s hard to imagine that the same neighbors in Gaza who are targeting civilians with violent attacks actually want peace.
“Once, many Israelis believed that creating a Palestinian state would placate Palestinian Arabs and cause them to discard their hostility. Events since Oslo, like today’s wave of rocket attacks, have shown clearly that this is not the case.”
The Zionist Organization of America prays for the safety and security of the people of Israel and the IDF.
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