Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations Will Require Public Support. By James Zogby.

Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations Will Require Public Support. By James Zogby. The Huffington Post, August 3, 2013.

Zogby:

There is an intimate relationship between Israeli and Palestinian public opinion and the successful outcome of any peace negotiations. In the end, no matter how clever or skillfully arranged the formula for compromise, it must pass the test of being accepted by both sides.

 

When we have polled both Israeli and Palestinian publics in order to see where compromise can be found, our efforts come up short. Too often what we find is that the most Israelis indicate a willingness to give in any peace agreement falls far short of the Palestinian minimum requirements for a just settlement. The negotiators, if they are worth their salt, know this. They, therefore, address each issue not merely as an abstract problem to be solved, but as a matter which must, in the end, be accepted by their respective publics. Concretizing this imperative, both Israeli and Palestinian leaderships have pledged to submit the product of the negotiations to a referendum. This makes it especially clear that both societies must be ready and willing to endorse any compromise arrangement for peace.

 

Ignoring the vital role that will be played by public opinion in this process, therefore, can doom the entire effort from the start.

 

Peace, like any political compromise, must be grounded in the possible. As I have noted, our polling establishes that, at this point, peace does not appear to be possible. Paralleling the negotiations, the real work that must be done is to expand the range of the possible by changing public attitudes on both sides.