[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:

“The Palestinians want solutions, not revolutions,” Peres told them
according to Laszlo Mizrahi.

Here's the problem with Mr. Peres: he suffers from a profound confusion as
to what should be the criteria for policy making.

Time and again Mr. Peres has demonstrated his tremendous skill as a
copywriter - with absolutely fantastic slogans.

When he shares these gems the reaction is typically admiration for his
verbal skills rather than any serious consideration of the underlying logic
of the slogan.

This is a man who has argued against historical evidence that his policy
recommendations are faulty with a slogan that the past doesn't matter.

He has also argued that it doesn't matter what the Arabs say.

On defense matters he has suggested that Syrian hotels on the Golan would
provide Israel more security than an IDF presence.

And this is only the tip of the Peres iceberg.

Don't get me wrong. A golden tongue is just what we need in a president.

A president, that is, that fulfills the function that a president in Israel
is supposed to fill.

Ribbon cutting ceremonies, visiting mourners, etc.]

6 in 10 Palestinians reject 2-state solution, survey finds
By GIL HOFFMAN The Jerusalem Post 07/15/2011 04:26
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=229493

73% of 1,010 Palestinians in W. Bank, Gaza agree with 'hadith' quoted in
Hamas Charter about the need to kill Jews hiding behind stones, trees.

Only one in three Palestinians (34 percent) accepts two states for two
peoples as the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to an
intensive, face-to-face survey in Arabic of 1,010 Palestinian adults in the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip completed this week by American pollster
Stanley Greenberg.

The poll, which has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, was
conducted in partnership with the Beit Sahour-based Palestinian Center for
Public Opinion and sponsored by the Israel Project, an international
nonprofit organization that provides journalists and leaders with
information about the Middle East.

The Israel Project is trying to reach out to the Arab world to promote
“people-to-people peace.” The poll appears to indicate that the organization
has a difficult task ahead.

Respondents were asked about US President Barack Obama’s statement that
“there should be two states: Palestine as the homeland for the Palestinian
people and Israel as the homeland for the Jewish people.”

Just 34% said they accepted that concept, while 61% rejected it.

Sixty-six percent said the Palestinians’ real goal should be to start with a
two-state solution but then move to it all being one Palestinian state.

Asked about the fate of Jerusalem, 92% said it should be the capital of
Palestine, 1% said the capital of Israel, 3% the capital of both, and 4% a
neutral international city.

Seventy-two percent backed denying the thousands of years of Jewish history
in Jerusalem, 62% supported kidnapping IDF soldiers and holding them
hostage, and 53% were in favor or teaching songs about hating Jews in
Palestinian schools.

When given a quote from the Hamas Charter about the need for battalions from
the Arab and Islamic world to defeat the Jews, 80% agreed. Seventy-three
percent agreed with a quote from the charter (and a hadith, or tradition
ascribed to the prophet Muhammad) about the need to kill Jews hiding behind
stones and trees.

But only 45% said they believed in the charter’s statement that the only
solution to the Palestinian problem was jihad.

The survey’s more positive findings included that only 22% supported firing
rockets at Israeli cities and citizens and that two-thirds preferred
diplomatic engagement over violent “resistance.”

Among Palestinians in general 65% preferred talks and 20% violence. In the
West Bank it was 69-28%, and in Gaza, 59- 32%.

Asked whether they backed seeking a Palestinian state unilaterally in the
UN, 64% said yes. The number was 57% in the West Bank and 79% in Gaza.
Thirty-seven percent said the UN action would bring a Palestinian state
closer, 16% said it would set back the establishment of a state, and 44%
said it would make no difference.

When asked what Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s top
priorities should be, 83% said creating jobs. Just 4% said getting the UN to
recognize a Palestinian state, and only 2% said peace talks with Israel.

Israel Project president Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi said she was encouraged
that the Arab Spring would bring more accuracy to Arab media and by the 59%
of Palestinians who are on Facebook. The Israel Project has 80,723 friends
for its Arabic site, which has had 9.5 million page views in two months.

“Some of the numbers in the poll are discouraging, but we are trying to
change them,” she said at a Jerusalem press conference in which Greenberg
presented the findings.

Greenberg said the survey proved that there was a big need for public
education and leadership on the Palestinian side.

Greenberg and Laszlo Mizrahi have presented the findings to President Shimon
Peres, opposition leader Tzipi Livni, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman,
Vice Premier Moshe Ya’alon and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s senior
adviser, Ron Dermer.

Next week, they have meetings scheduled in the White House and the Pentagon.

Israeli leaders told Greenberg and Laszlo Mizrahi they were encouraged by
Palestinian support for talks.

“The Palestinians want solutions, not revolutions,” Peres told them
according to Laszlo Mizrahi.