Palestinian Attitudes Toward Israel.

• Author: DeAtkine, Norvell B.

PALESTINIAN ATTITUDES TOWARD ISRAEL

By Dr. Michael Sharnoff

http://www.fpri.org/enotes/2012/201205.sharnoff.palestinian-attitudes-israel.html

The writer, a recent graduate of King's College, London, writing for the Foreign Policy Research Institute, surveys Palestinian attitudes from the standpoint of the secularists, Hamas, Fatah, and the general public toward the state of Israel. In general he finds that Palestinians of all categories embrace "popular, non-violent resistance." That attitude leads to demonstrations, hunger strikes, boycotts, and sanctions. Sharnoff posits that billionaire Munib al-Masri speaks for the secularists in advocating a peace with Israel in return for a state in the West Bank and Jerusalem as its capitol. Interviewing a respected moderate Islamist and professor at a Palestinian university, the writer was told that the 'Arab Spring" has emboldened Islamist radicals and that American inaction in promoting moderate Islamists constituted a missed opportunity. Moreover, in spite of corruption and authoritarism, which characterizes the Palestinian leadership, any uprising among the Palestinians will be directed at Israel, not the Palestinian leadership.

According to Sharnoff, Hamas's attitude has been tempered by its diminishing outside support. Having chosen to side with the Sunni Arab world against their Syria Alawi benefactors, as well as still suffering from their mauling at the hands of the Israelis in the operation Cast Lead in 2008-9, Hamas has been...