Some Palestinians expect their flag over all of Israel. Illustrative. By Joshua Spurlock
Prior to the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers and the surge in anti-Israel violence from Gaza, polls showed a significant segment of Palestinians supported or expected Palestinian violence. A poll from the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project said that 46 percent of Palestinians said suicide bombings attacking civilians can sometimes or often be justified to “defend Islam from its enemies.”
Though that’s actually a decline from the more than 60 percent that supported suicide bombings in 2013, only 32 percent in the 2014 poll said that suicide bombings were “never” justified. In other words, nearly two-thirds were either in support or unsure of their feelings regarding the brutal terror tactic.
It gets worse in Gaza, where more than 60 percent back such suicide attacks. And even in the supposedly more moderate West Bank region, 36 percent support it.
The Pew poll showed that the Palestinians were by far the most supportive of suicide bombings amongst various Islamic groups in the Middle East. The next closest was in Lebanon, where 29 percent support it as a legitimate defense of Islam.
The Times of Israel was one reporting group that highlighted this issue among the Palestinians.
Meanwhile, another poll showed that a quarter of Palestinians believe their leadership (the Palestinian Authority (PA) and PLO) intend to eventually overthrow Israel and conquer all their territory.
While it did not clarify if the same Palestinians support this vision, the Israel-Palestinian poll from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research said that more than 28 percent of Palestinians polled believe the PA and PLO eventually plan to conquer the State of Israel.
Of those, more than 12 percent polled believe that the Palestinian leadership eventually plan to “destroy much of the Jewish population of Israel.”
So regardless of how many Palestinians support reaching a peace deal with Israel, such peace will be difficult if not impossible to implement until the extremists are gone—either through security efforts or education.
The last few weeks have proven the results of these polls far too well.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, July 4, 2014)
Pew polling results and questions are Copyrighted in 2014 by the Pew Research Center