Rice at the UJC General Assembly

Secretary of State Rice addressed the 3,500 delegates to the United Jewish Communities (UJC) General Assembly in Nashville yesterday.  She gave the same strangely-worded explanation of the Palestinian state of mind that she used in her November 4 address to the Saban Forum in Jerusalem:

Most Palestinians now believe that Israel will always be their neighbor and that no Palestinian state is going to be born through violence.

It is unlikely that any Palestinian public opinion poll has ever asked the question “Do you believe Israel will always be your neighbor?”  If the question were asked, the likely Palestinian responses would be (in order of popularity): 

(a)  I certainly hope not.

(b)   Not if I can help it.

(c)    Don’t know.

(d)   Ron Paul.

(e)  Yes.

On the other hand, there have been multiple actual Palestinian opinion polls in the last few months, and they paint a different picture than the one on which the Secretary of State is basing her current diplomacy.  They are analyzed here.

In the just-released poll by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, the majority of Palestinians were confident, or very confident, that their leaders would, in the current negotiations, continue to insist on an Israeli withdrawal from the entire West Bank, Gaza [sic] and Jerusalem and the return of the refugees to their original homes.  I’m confident too.

I’m also confident the Palestinian leaders (whom Secretary Rice in her address called “Palestinian reformers”) will warn that, if their position is not accepted, a Palestinian state is going to be born through violence.