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Thursday, June 21, 2007

What do PalArabs view as their greatest threat?

There has always been a disconnect between how Palestinian Arabs think and how the world assumes they think. While they are easily manipulated by their leaders, they have traditionally been far more pragmatic than either their own leaders or the people who claim to be on their side.

A new poll shows that the conventional wisdom about them is, as usual, wrong:
Most Palestinians — 59 percent — see Fatah and Hamas as equally responsible for the infighting, and 71 percent believe that both sides are losers. Some 70 percent believe that the chances for an independent Palestinian state are low or non-existent.

And 56 percent see infighting and lack of law and order as the greatest threat to Palestinians, followed by poverty (21 percent), the Israeli occupation (12 percent) and international sanctions and boycott (10 percent).

Somehow the "occupation" does not seem to be uppermost in ordinary PalArabs' minds. Someone should tell the UN.
(h/t EBoZ)