Palestinian Survey Shows 75% Support for Suicide Bombing

[JohnLocke]

"The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) in Ramallah has conducted a public opinion poll in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the period between 07-14 October 2003. A representative sample of 1318 adults was interviewed face to face in 120 locations, with 3% margin of error."
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http://www.pcpsr.org/survey/polls/2003/p9epressrelease.html
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"75% support the suicide attack at Maxim Restaurant in Haifa leading to the death of 20 Israelis."

"Despite the widespread support for the Hudna and the mutual cessation of violence, 58% would still support Hamas’ decision to oppose the ceasefire."

"59% believe that current armed confrontations have helped the Palestinians achieve national rights in ways that negotiations could not."

"96% believe that the US is not sincere when it says it works toward the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
92% believe that the US is not sincere when it says it wants political reforms and clean government in the PA.
78% believe the US is not serious in its declared opposition to the Israeli decision to expel or assassinate President Yasir Arafat.
97% believe the current US policy toward the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is biased in favor of Israel.

"But Palestinian evaluation of the current US conditions and policies varies on...positive evaluation reaches 85% when evaluating American medicine, science, and technology, and reaches 74% when evaluating the status of gender equality, and 63% when evaluating the status of US economic conditions. Positive evaluation drops to 53% with regards to arts and entertainment, 53% with regard to freedom of press and expression, and 44% to democracy and respect for human rights. Positive evaluation drops further when it comes to treatment of minorities (17%), respect for religious freedom (27%)..."

[mmm]

1. The way they are treated, it is amazing the number is not higher

The fact that many would revel in Bush misfortune
would not make them complicit in the cause of that misfortune.

[Lurking Dem]

2. Yes it is

"regrettable but understandable."

/sarcasm

[JohnLocke]

3. I've Noticed None of the Anti-Israel People Have Responded

[Paschall]

5. Who are the "anti-Israel people"?

[number6]

26. "Anti-Israel People " ???

Anybody who doesn't hate the Palestinians ?

Anyone who doesn't think all Palestinians are terrorists ?

Anyone who questions Israel ?

[JohnLocke]

28. People who believe that whatever Israel does is wrong

[Paschall]

29. And you think there are people like that here?

You're just repeating the meme: Criticism of Sharon = criticism of Israel. It's getting kind of old. Make that very old.

[bluesoul]

30. Old

and annoying...

[JohnLocke]

33. Redundancy, Redundancy...

[number6]

31. a little more clarity please

People who think that everything Israel does is wrong
or people who think who think thay many things Israel does
are wrong ??

[Muddleoftheroad]

9. Wow, one post

And someone is already defending the indefensible.

[Jack Rabbit]

11. Defense?

Perhaps. However, it could also be an attempt to look for a possible explanation.

[Muddleoftheroad]

15. Not an explanation, more of a rationalization

And I quote, "The way they are treated, it is amazing the number is not higher."

I'm sorry, there is no excuse for suicide bombings. None. And there should be none here either.

[Darranar]

18. No one was excusing suicide bombings.

[Muddleoftheroad]

23. Just excusing support of it

Splitting hairs a bit.

[Darranar]

24. No one was excusing anything...

understanding and excusing are different things.

[Jack Rabbit]

27. Elaborating

If a jealous man goes off the deep end and murders his lover, we understand the act. Anybody who has ever felt deep pangs of jealously or betrayal, even mistakenly, can understand the kind of rage that can cause such an act. However, that doesn't mean that one doesn't believe that scuh an act should go unpunished.

[Jack Rabbit]

20. I disagree

Understanding does not imply approval. We have an phenimenon here that 75% of Palestinian approve of a specific act that I and many others here would characterize as a war crime. Personally, I find this ghastly. I'd like to know why this phenomenon exists. Perhaps that might help prevent the next one.

It might even work better than curfews, incursions, checkpoints, walls built deep into occupied territory, segreated access roads in occupied territory, bulldozing of homes, shooting children throwing rocks and missiles launched from helicopters. That is Sharon's way. It has had very little success, even at influencing public opinion in the occupied territories.

[Gimel]

21. Domestic violence

Intolerable conditions might lead to domestic violence. But it can not be a cause or excuse for murder, especially when there were options presented in negotiations. The will to improve the lives of the Palestinian people was inherent in the Camp David II negotiations.

If the people had no knowledge of what options were being presented, it is the fault of the PA. They were kept uninformed and subject to propaganda. The only explanation for such results is severe distortion in the leadership. They have been fed negative images of Israelis for decades.

[Jack Rabbit]

25. Good post, Gimel

If the people had no knowledge of what options were being presented, it is the fault of the PA.

You're absolutely right. It is up to the Palestinian leadership to present alternatives to the Palestinian people to attacks on civilian targets inside the Green Line as a method of resistance. There are alternatives ranging from non-violent resistance to choosing targets that have military value to the occupying forces.

It would make more sense for the Palestinian resistance to bomb a bulldozer that can be used to knock over a house, even if the act of destroying the machine kills no one, than it does to bomb a crowded cafe. Nothing good can possibly come of the latter. It's just ghastly.

[Darranar]

13. Let me ask you three questions...

Why was Sharon elected?

Why are the settlements expanding?

Why is the wall being built?

[Darranar]

4. Now why do you think terrorism has such popular support?

Perhaps because the Palestinians have been brutalized by Israel?

[The Magistrate]

6. That Understanding Of These Numbers, Sir

Ought to be mirrored when Israeli support for "transfer" is mentioned. Not surprisingly, many among two peoples long at war would just as soon see the others dead and gone, in no particular order.

[Darranar]

7. Agreed...

It is unquestionably true that Israeli support of transfer and of Sharon exist in the amount they do due to actions of Palestinian terrorism against innocent civilians. Such attacks are not only illegal and inhumanitarian, but they are also impractical.

[Jack Rabbit]

10. The poll also shows support for Arafat up

Support for Arafat among Palestinians is as puzzling as support for Sharon among Israelis. Both have failed. It can only be explained in terms of fear and resentment.

Note: The survey results also show that most Palestinians support a two-state solution and that only about a quarter support a single Palestinian state (presumably the mirror of Greater Israel). That is encouraging.

Note 2: Nowhere in this link do we see exactly what questions were asked. Nowhere does it suggest that respondents were asked if they would support a means of resistance other than suicide bombing.

Note 3: The 75% in favor may reflect a populace that has been misled into equating such attacks with resistance to occupation, just as a similar number of Americans last Spring had been misled into believing that an invasion of Iraq was part of a war against terror. Indeed, just as Americans are reluctant to express opposition to Mr. Bush for fear of appearing unpatriotic, so perhaps are Palestinians reluctant to express opposition to attacks on Israeli civilians for the same reason. Unfortunately, unlike Americans, the Palestinians are getting no information or opinion, even belatedly, that the line they have been fed is a lot of malarky.

[bemildred]

22. That is the point that I find interesting.

One might almost think that they are in cahoots under the table
to shore each other up. And this result is in direct contradiction
to the stated intentions of Sharon to undermine Arafat and support
for terrorism (the "learn to renounce terrorism" schtick).

[Paschall]

36. Another factor explaining support for Arafat

Sharon's attacks on Arafat's headquarters and avowed desire to eliminate or deport him have also undoubtedly fueled support for Arafat as the Palestinians' historic leader. In that respect he enjoys a position that Sharon does not. So to fear and resentment you can add national pride on the Palestinian side. (Thank you Mr. Sharon.)

[Jack Rabbit]

37. Unfortunately, that is also partly true

Apart from Araft the man, who is unsavory, we also have Arafat the symbol of Palestinian nationalism. For a Palestinina to diss Arafat the symbol is like an American showing disrespect for the flag.

That dichotomy between Arafat the man and Arafat the symbol not only protects him in some quarters, but allows for the tainting of Palesitinian nationalism in others.

[bluesoul]

38. And Sharon does

everything he can that Arafat gets only more popular among the Palestinians. If it were not for the policy and occupation Arafat would have been long history...

[Paschall]

8. Or as Jonathan Steele said in the Guardian:

"In the post-colonial world its {suicide-bombing's} first proponents had nothing to do with the anti-Islamic myth that martyrs are motivated by the hope of being greeted by dozens of virgins waiting in heaven. It began with Hindu Tamils in Sri Lanka, an act of martial self-sacrifice by angry women as well as men. When it spread to Palestine over the past decade, it was an act of last-resort desperation by frustrated people who saw no other way to counter Israel's disparity of power, as Cherie Blair once publicly pointed out."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,12469,1090844,00.html

And Ramallah--of all places! I wouldn't have been surprised by even higher figures. I think the findings on sentiment about US technology, gender equality, etc. at least belie a certain number of myths about the Palestinians.

[JohnLocke]

16. Tsk, Tsk, Tsk.

By the way..."When it spread to 'Palestine' over the past decade..."
I think he means Israel.

[Paschall]

34. You're misreading

Just as Steele mentions the Hindu Tamils as the perpetrators of suicide bombings, he mentions Palestine as the home of this generation of suicide bombers.

Are you just being picky or did you really think he was trying to imply that the violence of Palestinian suicide bombings doesn't occur on Israeli soil?

[JohnLocke]

12. Are you justifing terrorism, sir?

[Darranar]

14. No, I am not...

The deliberate slaughter of innocent civilians for no legitimate reason is illegal, immoral, and impractical. Those actions committed by Palestinian terrorists against innocent civilians must stop. There is no justification for them and no good reason to avoid condemning them in the strongest terms.

[JohnLocke]

17. Sorry

I was adressing the guy who posted the Guardian piece.

[Paschall]

32. Oh, me?

Please define terrorism.

[bluesoul]

35. I know there's something

called state terrorism too...

[Leovigild]

19. Two Valid Reasons....

Suicide bombing reflects a fundamental awareness that the Arab world will never be Israel's equal in conventional warfare. For half a century the massive tank armies of the Arab world have met nothing but one humiliating defeat after another. Even now the Syrian Army is a pile of obsolescent rust because they haven't paid their Soviet debts and have received no new equipment or spare parts. It is simply more cost effective to buy C4 for Hamas than SU-30's and T-94's for Syria.

But suicide bombing also destroys the argument for peace. How can you seriously contemplate letting down your guard to people who hate you that deeply ? And besides there is no conceivable deal or treaty short of wiping Israel off the face of the Earth that will please all Palestinians. Whatever deal is made the rejectionists will always be able to find those in the Muslim world who will provide them with C4. There will always be a steady stream of jehadis eager to die for Allah.

[Lithos]

39. Locking

Subject header is not the title of the article.

Lithos
FA/NS Moderator
Democratic Underground