Independent Norwegian poll: Palestinian majority opposes two states
Amid the ping-pong between Washington and Jerusalem over the validity of a Palestinian state established alongside Israel as the end-product of peace negotiations, the Norwegian Fafo institute which sponsored the 1993 Oslo Framework accords decided to find out how the Palestinians felt about this solution. Its main discovery was that a majority, 53 percent, of Palestinians (like Israelis), is against two states.
This figure breaks down into 33 percent, who opt for the annihilation of the state of Israel, whether by political means or force of arms – to be replaced by a single Islamic republic on all parts of the country; and 20 percent, which favors a united Israeli-Palestinian state, to be eventually engulfed by the latter population.
When Hamas members are polled separately, support for two states drops to 21 percent.
Publication of these findings by the Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies, which is supported by Norwegian foreign ministry and respected by European Middle East policy-makers, indicates that its researchers have given up on the Oslo Accords and the two-state goal pursued by Washington.
However, debkafile‘s Washington sources expect extreme reluctance on the part of the Obama administration to abandon this goal because it is the only policy objective it has developed and is being used, furthermore, as a key to open the administration’s diplomatic door to the Muslim world, especially in the Afghanistan-Pakistan arena (now lumped together as the “Afpak” front).
The US president’s advisers are urging him to speed up Israel-Palestinian peacemaking for these ends – even if it means foisting the two-state objective on the Israelis. Proof that the Palestinians too will have to be whipped into line brings the venture close to a mission impossible.