If Joe Biden is elected U.S. president, he won’t improve U.S. policy for Palestinians. Nearly 70 percent of Palestinians say it will be the same or worse under Biden. Just one in five Palestinians says he will improve matters.
That’s the word from last month’s poll of Palestinian opinion in the West Bank and Gaza from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.
A majority of 61% expects president Trump to lose the next US presidential election… Nonetheless, only 21% expect a positive change if Biden wins while 34% believe US policy will not change and 35% expect it to become worse.
The Palestinian public is similarly pessimistic about the claim by the United Arab Emirates that it blocked Israel’s annexation of the West Bank by signing a normalization agreement with Israel.
Three quarters of the public (75%) believe that the normalization agreement forces Israel to merely postpone annexation while 19% think it forces it to put an end to it.
These are the people — 1270 were interviewed for the poll — who should know. They have experienced creeping annexation for decades.
That disbelief goes along with steady decline in support/belief in the two-state solution.
Support for the concept of the two-state solution declines to 39% and opposition stands at 58%…. Three months ago, support for the concept stood at 45%.
There is little faith in the idea of the two-state solution as a practical policy:
A majority of 62% believes that the two-state solution is no longer practical or feasible due to the expansion of Israeli settlements while 31% believe that the solution remains practical. Moreover, 77% believe that the chances for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel in the next five years are slim or nonexistent…
This realism surely parallels the end of belief in the two-state solution among American progressives, even as the Democratic Party and liberal Zionists cling to the two-state solution as a talking point. No wonder Palestinians are cynical about Biden.
Notice the high support for armed struggle.
The most preferred way out of the current status quo is “reaching a peace agreement with Israel” according to 27% of the public while 36% prefer waging “an armed struggle against the Israeli occupation.” 14% prefer “waging a non-violent resistance” and 14% prefer to keep the status quo.
When asked about the most effective means of ending the Israeli occupation, 41% chose armed struggle, 24% negotiations, and 26% popular resistance.
Opposition to Trump’s “deal of the century” is high: 92% say they oppose it, compared to 88 percent three months ago.
As to the normalization deals with the UAE and Bahrain, Palestinians are angry about them.
We asked the public to pick one word that represents its sentiments toward the normalization agreement: the majority (53%) picked “betrayal,” 17% picked “abandonment” 13% “insult,” 9% “indifference,” 6% “sadness,” while only 1% picked words like “satisfaction,” “pride,” and “joy.”
Palestinians blame themselves over normalization, some expressing regret over their leadership’s decision to recognize Israel in 1988.
Nonetheless, a majority of 53% believes that the blame for the normalization deal falls on the shoulders of the Palestinians themselves due to their division and due to the fact that they have recognized Israel and normalized relations with it long before the others; 42% disagree with this view.
Again, we reflect: Promises were made to the Palestinians over the last 30 years and the Palestinians compromised on that basis, yielding on territorial claims. The promises were false. Is it any wonder that large numbers support armed resistance?
A large majority (70 percent) believes that other Arab countries, such as Bahrain, Oman, Sudan, and Morocco, will sign similar agreements with Israel. An even larger one (80 percent) says Saudi Arabia gave the UAE the OK to sign a deal with Israel; a similar majority believes that Saudis will sign a deal with Israel.
President after President, decade after decade, nothing has changed for these poor people. The US still sends billions of dollars in aid and weapons, which are used to kill unarmed Palestinians, and to keep the occupation going. Israel is never condemned for it’s war crimes, because all our Presidents have gone against our own policies, and condoned human rights violations by Israel, by vetoing any resolution against it, and threatening the nations who dare to do so.
I don’t blame the Palestinians for feeling this way. They have good cause to not be hopeful.
Biden and Harris will keep that unwavering love and support going, unfortunately.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/07/635824/Arab-nations-adamantly-opposed-to-normal-relations-with-Israeli-regime,-survey-shows
“Arab nations adamantly opposed to relations with Israeli regime, survey shows” Press TV, Oct. 7/20
EXCERPT:
“A new survey has revealed that Arab populations continue to overwhelmingly oppose the recognition of Israel and the establishment of ties with it, despite recent decisions by rulers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain to normalize with the Tel Aviv regime.
“The 2019-2020 Arab Opinion Index was based on face-to-face interviews conducted with 28,000 individual respondents across 13 Arab countries, including Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt and Mauritania, between November 2019 and September 2020.
“The result showed that the nations viewed Israel as the primary threat their country was facing.
“When asked whether they would ‘support or oppose diplomatic recognition of Israel by your country’ only respondents in Sudan and Saudi Arabia came in at less than 80 percent for ‘oppose,’ at 79 percent and 65 percent respectively.
“Even in the two countries that already recognize Israel – Jordan and Egypt – opposition was very high, at 93 percent and 85 percent, respectively.”
Let me repeat: The situation in Gaza can be improved if only that would be the focus of the incoming (without an evil eye) Biden administration. Seems to me that the gap between the demands for the end of the siege put forward by Hamas and the offers made by Israel can be bridged with a little outside help and persuasion. Regarding the West Bank and Jerusalem I see little to hope for. I also sense that practical people are not taking the talk of an election in Gaza and the West Bank seriously for the coming year.
Back In the 80’s Prince Bandar spoke often at the NAAA conferences, now defunct National Association of Arab Americans, on behalf of the Palestinian cause. Today an old man, he reflects, “The Palestinian cause is a just cause, but its advocates are failures. The Israeli cause is unjust, but its advocates are successful. That sums up the events of the last 70 or 75 years.”
What’s needed?