The Core Beliefs behind Palestinian Public Opinion

No surprises here: that’s the conclusion a reader might draw after making his way through “What Do Palestinians Want?,” Daniel Polisar’s comprehensive essay in Mosaic on Palestinian public opinion. Based on hundreds of polls conducted by different organizations over the years, Polisar’s study confirms, or rather reconfirms, that a large majority of Palestinians think the worst of Israel on all issues related to it.

One question worth asking at the outset is to what extent it is possible to know what Palestinians really think about Israel. Is the survey method, initially designed for marketing purposes and later applied to electoral politics in Western democracies, the most productive means of obtaining an accurate picture in a context removed from both commercial considerations and political trends in pluralist societies?

In the surveys examined by Polisar, questions are posed and Palestinians respond to them from an already fixed position and with no regard to fact, let alone argument. Why did the 1997 peace negotiations fail? The answer is clear: it was Israel’s fault! Who won the third Gaza war? Also clear: Hamas! Even on questions about personal attitudes rather than particular events, one can guess the answer in advance. Does Israel have a secret plan to destroy the al-Aqsa mosque and replace it with a synagogue? Yes! What is the most violent religion under the sun? Judaism!