First, I was alerted to an interesting piece by Uri Avnery by Samer Elatrash who wrote a similar piece. Both pieces treat the myth of the ‘generous offer’ that Israel gave the Palestinians. I find Tanya Reinhart’s book, Israel/Palestine, to be the best antidote to this myth, but the new pieces treat an admission by a senior Israeli official to the same effect.
A friend in Nablus who did some blogging a few months back sent some Ha’aretz articles of interest around as well. One discusses opposition in Palestinian militant groups to the plan to have Egypt take over the occupation of Gaza. Another is a ‘field guide to the new right’ in Israel.
As scary as it is to read about the right, sometimes it’s scarier to hear about the public. The last article was about public opinion in Israel, where 64% of the Jewish public supports encouraging Israeli Arabs to leave; 55% of whom believe Israeli Arabs endanger national security, 45% of whom want to revoke Arabs’ right to vote or hold political office, 72% of whom support entry restrictions on foreign workers, and about a quarter of whom would support an ultra-right wing nationalist party in elections.
If this is the state of public opinion in Israel, Palestinians might start to feel like there is no partner for peace.
