Less Than One Third Of Palestinians Want Two State Solution. How Do You Negotiate With People Who Want Your Country Ended?

New Poll Shows Majority of Palestinians Support Eliminating Israel “From the River to the Sea”

By Lea Speyer June 26, 2014 , 12:15 pm

7 3

1 0Email 12Share

“No evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.” (Psalm 91:10)

Palestinian Hamas militants take part in a military show in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip May 29, 2014. (Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Palestinian support for a two-state solution has rapidly dwindled to record lows, according to a new poll released by the US-based think tank the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

According to the results, less than 30 percent of Palestinians support a two-state solution with more than 60 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip agreeing that the long term goal “should be to work toward reclaiming all of historic Palestine, from the river to the sea.”

Over the course of five years, the majority of Palestinians wish to see the total elimination of Israel while a small majority would like to “end the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza to achieve a two-state solution.”

The results of the latest poll are in sharp contrast to results obtained by a December 2013 poll conducted by Hebrew University in which 53 percent of Palestinians supported a two-state solution.

Two-thirds of respondents agreed that should there be a two-state solution, it would be “part of a ‘program of stages,’ to liberate all of historic Palestine later.” Respondents agreed that “resistance should continue until all of historical Palestine is liberated.”

However, on a more promising note, majority of respondents opposed violent resistance against Israel. In Gaza, 70 percent said that Hamas should maintain a ceasefire with Israel while 57 percent agreed that Hamas should join the Palestinian unity government in renouncing violent.

In the West Bank, 56 percent said that Hamas should continue a ceasefire and half of respondents, 50 percent, said the terror organization should renounce violent entirely.

The results of the poll show that a clear majority of Palestinians support nonviolent “popular resistance against the occupation.” 62 percent of the West Bank and 73 percent of Gazans view nonviolent popular resistance as a useful tactic against Israel.

While Hamas leaders hoped that agreeing to take part in a united Palestinian government would increase its clout among Palestinians, results of the poll showed otherwise. Over 65 percent of respondents answered that Fatah leaders, led by Mahmoud Abbas, should lead the Palestinian Authority over the next two years.

The Washington Institute conducted the poll using “a leading Palestinian pollster” via in person interviews of 1,200 Palestinian adults. The poll has a statistical margin of error of three percent.

ABC News: Syrian Fighters Coming To US To Wage War Against Us.

From Syria to Stateside: New Al Qaeda Threat to US Homeland

Jan. 10, 2014

By JAMES GORDON MEEK
WASHINGTON

JAMES GORDON MEEKMore From James »

Investigative Producer

Share

108

Share on email

44 Comments

Seen in this image is "Abu Dujana al-Amriki," who identifies himself as an alleged al Qaeda fighter from the U.S. American officials have not been able to identify the young man and suspect the video could be part of an Assad regime hoax.

YouTube

Dozens of people from the U.S. who fought in Syria have returned home and are under FBI surveillance, but American officials fear that they haven't identified all of them, several senior officials told ABC News in interviews beginning last October.

The senior officials said that more than 50 "U.S. persons" -- a designation that covers both natural-born and naturalized citizens as well as those who have lived in the U.S. -- have returned here after battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in the Middle Eastern nation's bloody civil war. One of the senior counter-terrorism officials went further, saying the actual number of returning U.S. fighters from Syria is classified but is "much higher" than 50.

Not all of those who have returned are considered "jihadis" who adhere to the anti-U.S. violent ideology espoused by the late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but many are suspected of such sympathies, officials say.

Al Qaeda-aligned jihadi commanders in Syria screen new American arrivals in the ranks of foreign fighters to recruit those with clean passports who have the capability to conduct future operations against the West, two national security officials told ABC News.

One of the officials compared that process of selection to how the U.S. military screens raw recruits for Special Operations Forces qualification courses.

FBI Director James Comey said Thursday the threat is one of his "greatest concerns."

"My concern is that people can go to Syria, develop new relationships, learn new techniques and become far more dangerous, and then flow back," Comey told reporters.

Previous estimates put the number of Americans in the Syrian conflict at 16, but researcher Aaron Zelin at the Washington Institute for Near-East Policy in a report last month said as many as 60 from the U.S. may have fought among an estimated 11,000 foreign militants in Syria.

Only one American, Muslim convert Nicole Lynn Mansfield, 33, is known to have been killed in the Syrian war, though her daughter has insisted her mother was not a terrorist. Mansfield participated in protests against Israel in Michigan before joining combatants in Syria.

Several other reports of Americans killed in Syria fighting with al Qaeda-linked resistance groups have not been verified by the FBI, a spokeswoman told ABC News last week.

One "martyrdom" video supposedly featuring threats against his homeland by an alleged American killed with an al Qaeda group, "Abu Dujana al-Amriki," is considered a likely hoax by the Assad regime, which has capitalized on U.S. jihadis joining Salafist extremists.

Counter-terrorism officials in the United Kingdom and other Western European countries also have privately discussed with their American counterparts their difficulty in identifying citizens or residents of their nations who have slipped into Syria.

It is the easiest war zone for foreign fighters to reach since the Russians faced the insurgency in Afghanistan three decades ago, officials say, which makes tracing the volunteers' travel highly challenging if they're not already on watch lists.

Groups of foreign fighters -- many hardcore Islamist jihadis -- slip into Syria by the hundreds every month through Turkey. They often meet in places such as nearby Bulgaria and make their way there, often by car, said one senior U.S. official.

ABC News Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas and producer Jack Cloherty contributed to this report.