16-Jun-21: What do the Palestinian Arabs think now?

Image Source: Red Cross

There's unique value to Palestinian Arab polls of Palestinian Arab public opinion. 

They often come with internal contradictions and unanswered ambiguities. But at least they don't suffer from, or impose on their readers, the wishful thinking and projection that make some outside analyses, especially from far-away reporters and columnists with axes to grind, misleading and worse.

We have reported here for years about the results of periodic polling done by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), headed by a respected professional, Dr. Khalil Shikaki. We know Shikaki only by his work and reputation; there is no personal connection between us.

Before getting into the details and the data, it's worth repeating what we wrote in one of our previous posts about Palestinian Arab opinion polls ["04-Apr-18: Here's (one view of) what the Palestinian Arabs want"]:

Palestinian Arab polls of Palestinian Arab opinion can be valuable tools for understanding what they think at any given time. And no less importantly, how accurate the assessments of what they want for the future are. And to be blunt about this, they're invariably more valuable by far than media guesses about what the Palestinian Arabs think and want. Claims are made freely and often about Palestinian Arab aspirations. Very often, though, the data tell a story that's at total variance from what's being claimed about them. That's why we have chosen from time to time to publicize here the results of opinion polls conducted by relatively respected organizations within Palestinian Arab society.

PSR Public Opinion Poll Number 80 was released yesterday. It reports on polling conducted on a sample of 1,200 adults interviewed face to face in 120 randomly selected locations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip between June 9 and 12, 2021. The margin of error is plus/minus 3%.

The press release summarizing its findings starts with uncommonly strong language, speaking of "a paradigm shift in public attitudes against the PA and its leadership and in favor of Hamas and armed struggle". 

In these current fraught times, you would think this would get significant headline treatment. But the PSR polls almost never do. Here are some of the key findings.

Political leadership

• PSR found widespread public discontent with how President Mahmoud Abbas, now 85 years old, leads them. Abbas was elected on January 9, 2005 to serve as President of the Palestinian National Authority (usually called the PA) until January 15, 2009. More than sixteen years after taking charge, he gives no indication that he's ready to relinquish control. Quite the opposite.
• Abbas announced on January 15, 2021 that elections would take place for the no-longer-functional Palestinian Legislative Council on May 22, 2021. These were going to be followed by presidential elections on July 31, 2021. Based on reports we saw, there were few observers who believed they were actually going to happen.
• And on April 30, 2021 ["Palestinian leader delays parliamentary and presidential elections, blaming Israel" via Reuters] the skeptics were proven right. It was all Israel's fault, naturally - because everything bad in their world is the fault of the Jews..
• Now notice that, as the poll shows, two-thirds of Palestinian Arabs reject Abbas’ decision to postpone the elections. To us, this is a big deal. While the Western media are busy swallowing Abbas' chronic blame-all-problems-on-the Zionists, Abbas' subjects understand the games that are being played and don't like them. 
• The same proportion, two-thirds, say the reason the elections were postponed is not because of Zionist dirty doings but rather (which is obviously the case) that Abbas "was afraid of their outcome, not because Israel has prevented the holding of elections in East Jerusalem." His placing the blame on Israel is the subject of an April 27, 2021 Associated Press report ["Egyptian officials: Palestinians plan to call off elections"] in which the obvious is pointed out: that the Israeli role is nothing more than "a pretext for Abbas to cancel a parliamentary election that his Fatah movement is expected to lose badly. Fatah has split into three rival lists, paving the way for Hamas to emerge as the biggest party in parliament."
• The latest PSR data bear this out. A clear majority prefer Hamas leadership over Fatah under Abbas. More concretely, if presidential elections were held today on a head-to-head basis between two candidates, Mahmoud Abbas would get 27% and lose massively to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh who gets 59%. Three months ago, a PSR poll predicted Haniyeh at 46% and Abbas at 47%. This is not what Abbas wants to hear.
• Nor is this: In a hypothetical two-horse race between Haniyeh and convicted and imprisoned-for-life terrorist Marwan Barghouti who personally paid for the guitar bomb that murdered our daughter (among a long list of additional crimes for which he is in prison), Barghouti would win 51% to 42%. But note, which PSR does not, that in a previous poll three years ago, the malodorous Mr Barghouti did considerably better than this month. 
• Abbas does worse in the West Bank than he does in Gaza. In Gaza, Abbas would get 30% of votes (44% three months ago); Haniyeh gets 60% (56% three months ago). In the West Bank which Fatah/PA/Abbas nominally control, Abbas gets just 25% (52% three months ago) and Haniyeh gets 59% (38% three months ago).
• What's more, there is "widespread public discontent with the performance of the PA government and leadership as well as Fatah during the [recent] confrontations and the war."
• Overall, support for Hamas electorally and in general has increased dramatically at the expense of Fatah: "A majority of the Palestinians think that Hamas is more deserving of representing and leading the Palestinian people" than Fatah under Abbas’ leadership.
• Asked about the ability of the current PA government headed by Prime Minister (since April 2019) Mohammad Shtayyeh, to improve economic conditions, 62% expect failure.

Palestinian Arab Gazans with no work - 2017 [Image Source]

Peace

• What are Palestinian Arab society's preferred courses for getting out of what their report calls the current status quo. 27% of them say “reaching a peace agreement with Israel” (down from 36% three months ago) - not much of an answer without some explanation of how this gets done but it's the answer the pollsters chose to offer. But then a major larger group amounting to 39% say waging “an armed struggle against the Israeli occupation” (sharply up from 26% three months ago). 11% prefer waging "non-violent resistance”. 18% say the status quo isn't actually that bad and prefer to keep it.
• Asked about the desirability of re-engaging with the United States now that Trump has gone and the Democrats under Biden are in charge, 54% don't want it to happen. 
• The US and Europe speak often and enthusiastically about a two-state solution. But support for the concept (which was not defined in the poll for reasons not explained in the PSR report) was a mere 39%., almost identical to what it was three months ago. A whopping 58% of Palestinian Arabs say they oppose it.

War

• Support for a return to armed confrontation and intifada rose sharply to 60%. Support for a resumption of negotiations with Israel and the belief that negotiation are the best way to end "occupation" fell.
• Which side "won" the May 2021 battle between Hamas forces in Gaza and the IDF? The Palestinian Arab public has a breathtakingly clear view on this: "An overwhelming majority... (77%) believes that Hamas has come out a winner in its last war with Israel while only 1% think Israel came out a winner."
• 72% think those 4,300+ Hamas rockets were launched at Israeli towns and homes "in defense of Jerusalem and al Aqsa Mosque". 
• Of the various groups "most willing to defend Jerusalem and its holy places", Hamas gets a 29%, rating and Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah/PA a dismissive 3%.
• 60% of those polled believe the participation (presumably the civil disobedience, riots, armed and unarmed attacks on Israelis) of "the Palestinian citizens of Israel in the recent confrontation was driven, first and foremost, by their desire to defend the holy sites." 
• 94% "are proud of the performance of the Gaza Strip during the May confrontation with Israel while 6% say they are not."

Image Source: Times of Israel

Life

• Asked whether they have a positive view of life ("positive evaluation of conditions"), only 8% of people in the Gaza Strip say yes. In the West Bank, it's a whopping 24%.
• 26% of all Palestinian Arabs "want to emigrate due to political, security, and economic conditions". Breakdown: in the Gaza Strip it's 42% (slightly up on three months ago when it was 40%). In the West Bank, it's 15% (sharply down on 23% of three months ago). 
• Based on viewing habits of the past three months, by far the most watched TV channel for Palestinian Arabs is Aljazeera TV (Arabic of course) with 36% of respondents. Next came Al-Aqsa TV with a mere 13% and six others with far smaller audiences.

Corruption in Palestinian Arab institutions

• Is there corruption in PA institutions? 84% say yes.
• Is there corruption in Hamas institutions? 57% say yes.
• Can you criticize PA institutions without fear? 46% of West Bankers say yes. 
• Can you criticize Hamas institutions without fear? 50% of Gazans say yes.

Rewards for Terror

• This being a Palestinian Arab survey of Palestinian Arab views, no one should be surprised that the poll avoids asking whether the Palestinian Authority's notorious incentive payments program for imprisoned or dead terrorists ("Pay to Slay" or less colorfully Rewards for Terror) ought to continue. Of course (we say) they want it to continue. 
• Instead, based on the responses, the PSR poll question is apparently this: Should those payments "to the families of martyrs and prisoners [be] based on need assessment and number of family members rather than on the act committed by the martyr or the number of years in jail"? 
• Payments according to how sickening the act of terror was and how long the prison sentence, assuming the terrorists were caught, tried and convicted, is how it works today. Adjusting it to take account of the terrorist family's actual needs is the far-fetched proposal offered by the poll question. 
• The result is absolutely (and disturbingly) clear: 70% are opposed to the suggested change. They're happy with how things are today - more dead and injured Israelis means more cash from the chronically insolvent PA budget and they see nothing wrong with that.  Abbas and his cronies, unable to build or run their own education system, their own decent health-care system, their own industrial infrastructure to create employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for a society with a staggering unemployment rate of 38% among the crucial youth cohort aged between 18 and 29 (2019 data) - instead simply spend the foreign cash the PA gets from foolish government officials in Europe and elsewhere. It's an easy decision.
• A significant footnote: The 2019 unemployment rate (official Palestinian Authority figures) among that same youth cohort in Gaza stood at an unbelievable 63%. It's a piece of information to keep in mind when we see coverage of masses of Gazans being herded to protest rallies and wildly violent "protests" in the vicinity of the border with Israel.  

There's much to ponder in these findings, perhaps the most significant part of it being that Palestinian Arab leadership is neither building a credible alternative to peace with Israel nor doing anything to moderate their society's passion for war, confrontation and self-delusion.

It's a depressing picture for anyone who gives a damn.

Some of our earlier posts based on PSR's findings:

• 10-Dec-14: What else do Palestinian Arabs want, beyond the 80% who say killing of ordinary Israelis is a good thing?
• 22-Sep-15: What do the Palestinian Arabs think?
• 03-Nov-15: What do they mean when the Palestinian Arabs say they oppose terror?
• 14-Dec-15: What do the Palestinian Arabs think?
• 16-May-16: What do the Palestinian Arabs think?
• 15-Jun-16: What do the Palestinian Arabs think?
• 26-Sep-17: What do the Palestinian Arabs think now
• 16-Jul-18: What do the Palestinian Arabs want? What do they believe? What do they think?
• 13-Sep-18: What do the Palestinian Arabs think?
• 04-Jun-19: What do Palestinian Arabs think?
• 05-Feb-20: What do Palestinian Arabs think?

Click here for the full list.

[For Polish-speaking readers, a version translated into the Polish language is online at the Listy z naszego sadu site - dziękuję ci bardzo, Małgorzata.]

07-Jun-21: Kill some Jews, earn your family a new home

Image Sourc: Times of Israel

We're thinking back to the string of Arab-on-Israeli knifing attacks that embittered so many lives in this part of the world five/six years ago.

One of those, known as the Lions Gate stabbings was a murderous attack on Aaron and Odell Benita (also reported as Bennett) and their two small children in strollers. They were on their way to the Kotel - the Western Wall - to pray. 

We wrote about the awful events more or less in real time for our blog: "03-Oct-15: Arab violence escalates in Jerusalem: Multiple stabbings in Old City tonight". 

In its coverage, the New York Times ["Survivor of Jerusalem Stabbing Recounts Attack on Her Family"] quoted the young mother and wife describing how she was:

running down an alley in the Old City of Jerusalem with a knife stuck in the base of her neck, desperately seeking help. And most vividly, she described the cruel and mocking reactions she said she met from shopkeepers and passers-by. “I screamed, I begged for aid,” Mrs. Bennett, 22, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish mother of two, said in an interview on Tuesday from her hospital bed, where she was recovering from multiple stab wounds. “They stood chatting and laughing — they spat at me,” she said of the Palestinians in the alley. One man continued drinking cola out of a can, she said; others shook her off when she tried to hold onto them to lift herself off the ground. “I was looking for one glimmer of mercy in their eyes,” she said in a weak voice.

Horrifying. Almost beyond belief. There was no mercy to be found there that day.

The assailant was a kid of nineteen who was shot dead in the act by fast-moving - though not fast enough - Israeli security personnel. That knifer ands his family have gotten an obscene amount of sympathy, attention and money in the years that have passed. 

The two Israeli men who were killed Saturday evening in a terror attack in Jerusalem’s Old City were named by police as Nehemia Lavi, 41, and Aharon Banita, 22. The two died of their wounds shortly after being stabbed in Jerusalem’s Old City by a Palestinian terrorist. Banita’s wife was in serious condition and their two-year-old baby was lightly wounded. She was taken to Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem and was undergoing surgery. The toddler was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center for treatment where he remained in stable condition. Lavi, a Jerusalem resident, leaves behind a wife and seven children. A rabbi at the Old City’s Ateret Cohanim yeshiva who lived nearby, he had rushed to the scene when he heard screaming in the street. [Times of Israel, October 3, 2015]

* * *

There's news today of what happened after those tragic, savage events: 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday ordered that the family of a Palestinian terrorist who murdered two Israelis be paid more than $40,000 and be given new housing, the Kan public broadcaster reported.

Ramallah Governor Laila Ghannam, an Abbas appointee, met with the family of Muhannad Halabi and gave them some 30,000 Jordanian Dinars  ($42,000), reportedly to help them cover housing costs since their home was destroyed by the IDF following the killings, Kan said.

Ghannam also told the family that Abbas had instructed his security services to help them find permanent housing. Home demolitions are a controversial policy that the IDF says helps deter future terror attacks.

The payments are the first high-profile payments to terrorist families since the Biden administration took office, despite claims that the Palestinians were willing to rethink the controversial policy as part of an effort to improve relations with Washington.

Halabi killed two Israelis, Rabbi Nehemiah Lavi and Aharon Banita, and injured Banita’s wife, Adele, and their 2-year-old son in a stabbing attack in the Old City of Jerusalem on October 3, 2015.

[Source: "Palestinian Authority pays $42,000 to family of terrorist who killed 2 Israelis", Times of Israel, June 7, 2021]

Knifing victims Lavi and Banita of blessed memory [Image Source]

Palestinian Media Watch, in a bulletin issued today, adds this dimension. 

The murderer’s sister claims that a sum of 130,000 Jordanian dinars (about US$183,359) was donated at some point to the murderer’s family. This munificent gift put them in a position to acquire a replacement home. 

But this being the Palestinian Authority, after various 'deductions' (evidently to benefit other worthy "martyrs") had been applied to the cash, what they received was a mere 100,000 dinars - not enough to complete the purchase. 

The vendors - the Arab owners selling the home but not yet paid - to the Muhannad Halabi's bereaved family sued to enforce the contract of sale, putting the Halabi people into a squeeze. 

At that point, renowned philanthropist and generous-hearted arch-terrorist Mahmoud Abbas, president-for-life of the Palestinian Authority, stepped up and provided the bridge funding in the form of a gift of 30,000 dinars. That allowed the murderer's family to complete the purchase and for the incentive to fresh acts of murder to be publicized to a willing audience of Palestinian Arabs who gobble up just this sort of sociopathic gesture. 

(The source for the narrative quoted by PMW is material broadcast on the ”Gaza” YouTube channel on May 29, 2021.)

* * *

This isn't the first time the despotic Palestinian Authority has honored the memory of that same cherished murdering knifer. Nearly six years ago, we wrote here ["28-Oct-15: The Pal Arab passion for knife attacks isn't just for social media: they sincerely mean to kill"] that

As the Jerusalem Post reports, the Palestinian Authority controlled by Mahmoud Abbas has just decided to honor Muhannad Halabi [the thug whose family has just been awarded the astronomical sum we reported above] by naming a street after him. Halabi is the 19-year-old murderer of two Jews killed close to the Old City's Lion's Gate on October 3, 2015 in a stabbing and shooting "operation" that took the lives of Rabbi Nehemiah Lavi and Aharon Benita and seriously injured Benita’s wife, Adele, and their two-year-old son.

The assailant was shot dead by police at the scene. Palestinian Media Watch reported several days ago that the Palestinian Bar Association has already grotesquely bestowed an honorary law degree on the deceased stabber/shooter/attacker. Now the municipality of Surda/Abu Qash, in the suburbs of Ramallah, will name a street for him "to emphasize the national role played by Palestinian municipalities."

It's also not the first time "Ramallah Governor Laila Ghannam", who handed the Pay to Slay prize to the killer's family, has played a key role in the nurturing of fresh, young killers in Palestinian Arab society. 

We wrote about her eight years ago ["14-Jun-13: When the murderers go free, what does it really do to you?"]

The despicable Abdullah Barghouti, convicted on 67 separate counts of murder, was honoured first by means of an official “solidarity” visit to his family’s home. The PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs, Issa Karake, led the honour parade, accompanied the District Governor of Ramallah, Laila Ghannam. Then the PA’s tightly controlled official television channel arrived and recorded a video homage to Barghouti, including interviews with proud family members.

Here's how this disgraceful terror-embracing public official is profiled on a European Union website:

Dr. Laila Ghannam (ليلى غنام) has been the governor of Ramallah and al-Bireh since 2014. From 2008 until 2014 she was member of Fatah’s leadership committee for the governorate. Ghannam was previously a lecturer at al-Quds University (Abu Dis) and chairwoman of the Wattan Center for Women between 2005 and 2007.

About the despicable Kuwaiti mass-murderer Barghouti who remains imprisoned for now and who made the exploding guitar case that destroyed the Sbarro pizzeria where our child was murdered in August 2001, see "21-Jun-13: In dark corners, remorseless killer of 66 innocents is called 'administrative detainee' and 'captive'" and "01-Jul-13: 66 acts of murder make him a hero in parts of the Arab world. What does this tell us about parts of the Arab world?"

* * *

Don't let anyone tell you differently: money is a key enabler in the Palestinian Arab descent into the horrors exemplified by what Abbas. Ghannam and the now-deceased knifer Halabi did. 

The Mahmoud Abbas regime can't function without massive doses of aid. Abbas can't function, his Pay to Slay scheme can't function, Ghannam's municipality can't function, the parents of Halabi can't function. That flow of foreign gifts - cash in the billions of dollars each year - is what allows the scandalous failed PA regime to keep the lights on.

Who pays? We're preparing a blog post that reviews the cast of givers (there's some data here) but of one thing we can be certain and so should you: If you pay taxes in a European Union country, in the United States, in the United Kingdom, you are certainly part of the problem even if you don't realize it yet. 

03-Oct-19: What lies behind a decade of "progress" at an influential Jordanian graduate school

That's Princess Rym Ali in the center and special guest CNN's Richard Quest
on the left [Image Source]

The Arab world's most important and potentially most promising school of journalism studies is in the news this week - in Jordan, at least.

It gets a mention here because of what is not addressed at all in the coverage: the extraordinary act of self-identification by which its student body declared their professional role model to be a confessed killer of children.

We explain below who that killer is.

But first, the fluffy self-congratulatory side as reported by a government-controlled Jordanian news outlet yesterday:

HRH Princess Rym on Monday attended a celebration marking the 10th anniversary of the Jordan Media Institute’s (JMI) master’s programme in journalism and new media. The JMI is a not-for profit educational institution, founded by Princess Rym to develop the performance of journalists and media personnel in Jordan and the region... “The institute believes that journalism is not limited to defending freedom, rather building a culture of values and true democracy,” Princess Rym said. The Princess highlighted the importance of equipping journalists with skills needed to keep up with developments in communications, technology and the digital sphere... The princess shed light on various efforts to develop official media and the strides made in the field, reiterating the importance of these steps in creating an interactive environment that promotes dialogue and makes a change by relying on facts and eschewing false information... CNN's renowned business correspondent Richard Quest, the keynote speaker, highlighted his experience in presenting economic programmes on TV... [and] also referred to the results of a survey showing that "happiest countries in the world are those which have access to information." Dean of the JMI Bassem Tweissi said that “establishing the institute marked a turning point in journalism education in Jordan and the region and was a pioneering step that bridged a gap in the field of media education”.
["JMI marks 10th anniversary of master’s in journalism", Jordan Times, October 2, 2019 - archived]

There's a follow-on piece in today's newspaper of Jordanian record. In it, the founder of the JMI, Princess Rym Ali, a former on-camera news figure on CNN before her marrriage into the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan's royal family, is quoted enunciating some lofty and admirable ideals:

The Jordan Media Institute (JMI) trains its students to the highest possible standards and human values, fights hate speech and provides them with a space where freedom of expression and respect for others are not contradictory... She said, during the event that was also addressed by CNN’s Richard Quest, that the JMI believes that journalism education is not only about defending freedoms, but also about building a truly democratic culture... Quest, CNN’s anchor and business editor at large, stressed the importance of freedom as key to good press. He noted how press freedoms contribute to people’s prosperity and wellbeing. He added that people trained by the JMI will be the “backbone of society” and therefore must understand that there are two sides to each story with a few exceptions, and must ensure society has access to information. During his interactive remarks, Quest also addressed the issue of neutrality and noted that while journalists are entitled to their opinions, they must leave them outside the newsroom. They have to be objective about their coverage and how to tell the stories... The celebration also included testimonials by some alumni about their experience at the JMI. They are part of more than 260 graduates who have achieved 91 per cent employment rate in a highly competitive market, according to the statement. The JMI is a non-profit academic institution that has also provided training opportunities to more than 6,000 people... ["JMI trains students to highest standards, human values — Princess Rym', Jordan Times, October 3, 2019 - archived]

What's not to love? Who could be mean enough to criticize what they do? We'll get back to the Jordan Media Institute in a moment.

Meanwhile.

Jordan happens to be the home of one of the most monstrous journalists to ever claim media credentials. She's the savage of whom we wrote in this post: 05-May-13: Self-confessed jihadist murderer: "With my media card, I was able to enter back and forth, undetected..." She's also our child's killer.

Here is Ahlam Tamimi, the first female terrorist in the history of Hamas, in her own boastful words. She's describing the life she led prior to masterminding and executing the blood-drenched human-bombing of Jerusalem's Sbarro pizzeria on August 9, 2001 and the resultant massacre:

I was a journalism student, in the political science track, and I was working in the media and the press. This allowed me to become a member of the Palestinian Journalists Union. The union card enabled me to enter Jerusalem in order to conduct interviews. This drew the attention of the 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades [of Hamas]. They realized that I could enter and leave Jerusalem, without the knowledge of the Zionists... This was one of God's miracles and facilitations. This made them ask me to join [Hamas - the first woman to do so] and I immediately accepted... I was assigned three missions. The first mission was to spot locations suitable for Jihadi operations. I would go to Jerusalem and walk around in the areas frequented by the Zionists... I would go around these areas, and as part of my first mission, I would surveil suitable locations, such as shops, malls, schools, and restaurants – any suitable target for a Jihadi operation. I would submit reports to the cell commander, and this report would be studied statistically: How many Israelis enter a certain location in one hour? I would sit there, look at my watch, and count the number of people who entered the place in an hour. I would calculate it and report that if the operation were to take place at a certain hour, the number of Israeli casualties would be at least 30 and could even reach 50, because during this specific hour, 70 Israelis entered the place. I would also check what the most suitable hours were. For example, a restaurant is frequented by Zionists mostly during lunchtime, a school in the morning... There was an optimal time to carry out the Jihadi operation, and I would write all of this in the report, which I sent to the cell commander [Abdullah Barghouti]... My second mission was to carry out Jihadi operations... [Source: MEMRI]

Ahlam Tamimi doesn't hide her responsibility for mass murder or the joy she derived from targeting and then murdering Jewish school-children who she says were her prime targets. To anyone following her, she's egregiously proud of what she did. If there was any tiny cloud to her happiness it was, unbelievably, that not enough innocents were killed: In her own words, "I admit that I was a bit disappointed because I had hoped for a larger toll."

Quickly removed (without explanation) after we published our critique,
the website of the JMI's privileged students of journalism
featured this tribute to Ahlam Tamimi as their "success model"
on every single page of the site. 

Guess who else shared her pride and satisfaction?

Visit the homepage of the JMI website and you see a button that links to a related website hosting the work-product of JMI’s own cadre of young journalists. It's in Arabic only, naturally enough; these contents are not meant for the Western sponsors and international partners. They're the work product of JMI's insiders... On every page of the site, under the headline “Success Models”, a journalist called Tamimi is profiled. She is the murderer of our daughter, Malki. They provide a large photograph of Tamimi and certain biographical details concerning her journalistic background. But important things about the “success model” offered up by this new centre of journalistic “excellence” are omitted: Tamimi brought a human bomb to the center of Jerusalem on August 9, 2001 to destroy the busy Sbarro pizzeria. She was instrumental in planning this major terrorist attack. Fifteen people were blown to pieces that day and 130 injured, many of them children and infants. The sixteenth victim – a young mother with her two year-old daughter – has never regained consciousness. The people traveling on the bus with Tamimi from Jerusalem to Ramallah in the hour after the explosion beamed with delight as the scale of the carnage was reported on the radio. Tamimi was barely able to contain her own happiness [video], the joy that came from secretly being the one responsible for the massacre and no one on the bus knew. Tamimi is a convicted killer, a psychopath who boasts on YouTube that she selected the site of her massacre so that the dead would include as many young religious Jews as possible. She famously smiled broadly with perverse pleasure [video] when informed of how many children’s lives were extinguished in the attack she masterminded. ["10-Dec-14: In the Arab world's most promising new journalism school, a passion for murder and hatred"]

It doesn't get much more shocking than this: a privileged group of the Arab world's best and brightest, nurtured in a Western-influenced environment that emphasizes excellence, the highest professional values, respect for other people's rights. And they choose, freely and under zero duress, to designate a Hamas terrorist, a woman who set out to murder as many Jewish children as she could, and succeeded, as their principal figure of adulation.

Think about the implications of that for a moment.

No less shocking is how our serious efforts to get into a dialogue with the management of the JMI to explain to them what a catastrophic mistake they had made were comprehensively rebuffed. With the exception of a single response to us, worded rudely and offensive in a silly way, they ignored everything we said or published. Never acknowledged our existence. Never dealt publicly at any stage, right up until today, with the fully substantiated claims we made widely. Simply denied and lied.

What they did do, from the highest level within the JMI on down, was to engage in a series of calculated and deceptive misrepresentations to their various local and foreign stake-holders, including claiming that the JMI students' website had been suffering from unspecified technical problems necessitating that it be taken down, giving them a chance to hide the evidence - which we have of course archived. And claiming that whatever narrow and technical problems may have been behind Ahlam Tamimi being named their elite students' role model, they were now fixed, of no significance, never to return.

JMI management quickly (meaning after we publicized this and began letting some of the relevant people know) took care to erase the tribute to Tamimi without a word of public explanation or acknowledgement. As far as we know, they never addressed the serious matter with anyone - not their students, not their funders, not the government of Jordan, not their academic staff or international partners - in terms of what had actually happened.

The evidence was simply swept under the carpet. 

They published and distributed to their foreign funders and backers a lame pseudo-retraction which we dissected here. In fact, they did whatever they could without even once dealing with the disturbing issues head on. If you want to ensure a sociopathy that has invaded your organization remains active and viable, that's probably the most effective way to do it. But it's immoral, dishonest, dangerous and completely misleading.

We soon approached their corporate, non-Arab funders and persuaded almost a third of them to stop backing the JMI. We don't apologize for wishing we had managed to shut them down altogether.

We invested considerable effort in approaching several Amman-based foreign embassies to support our efforts. We were rebuffed by most, though not by all. We documented some of this (certainly not all) in a string of posts:

• 11-Dec-14: Is it newsworthy when journalists make a terror-addicted murdering colleague their role-model?
• 11-Jan-15: Does the king need to fly to Paris to stand with terror victims? He can do it better back in Jordan
• 16-Jan-15: Incubating terror-minded journalists in Jordan but they have an answer to the criticisms
• 19-Jan-15: The dilemmas of funding and enabling terror
• 05-Jun-15: Beyond the politics, the business and the misunderstandings at Orange, a question of terror
• 30-Nov-15: Incitement to savagery costs lives on all sides so why doesn't everyone want to shut it down?
• 14-Feb-19: A prince, a princess, four Tamimis - and murderous violence

JMI claim numerous prominent entities as their parners, supporters and donors. They're listed here on their website. It's somewhat surprising - given the Ahlam Tamimi connection, the open adulation of murderous terrorism, the way Jordan flagrantly breaches its 1995 Extradition Treaty with the US in order to safeguard her - that these generous friends include the US Embassy in Amman and the US Agency for International Development, or USAID.

We're incapable of understanding how this can possibly be.

Other named donors and partners, according to the JMI website this morning, include the BBC, Australian Aid, UNESCO, The Swedish Institute, the German embassy in Jordan, and Reporters Without Borders. It would be convenient to assume they're unaware of the problematic nature of the Jordan Media Institute and have never heard of Tamimi or the Sbarro pizzeria massacre. But the truth is we have been in dialogue with most of them; we have explained the background and the Tamimi involvement. While it's clear we and they see life differently, there's no doubt at all that they are fully aware of the facts. It's a puzzle.

But here's the thing: In a kingdom whose news industry is tightly controlled, among the least free in the entire world even today, you can invent realities at will and never have to deal with the consequences of your own deceptions.

For instance, you can say that your extradition treaty with the United States, executed and ratified and fully implemented again and again in the years since it was signed in 1995, is invalid. That it breaches your constitution and therefore Ahlam Tamimi cannot lawfully be sent to trial in Washington for her crimes. That the US/Jordan treaty was drafted by the man in the moon.

But at the end of the day Jordan is a tiny place, of marginal significance from almost any perspective. On the other hand, from what we have learned after frustrating years of pressing its absolute ruler to extradite our child's killer, today's Jordan and its systematic deceptions and fabrications provides insight into deadly serious problems that are not uniquely Jordanian.

What we have learned about the real Jordan Media Institute - the one that's not conjured up in press releases and a captive media totally controlled by the royal family - is an ongoing scandal. It's compounded by an inexplicable cover-up by major foreign governments, by the complicity of some of the world's most important NGOs, and - to their shame - by the lack of spine demonstrated by many members of the mainstream media.

Anyone offended by our saying this is cordially invited to let us know where the factual mis-statements are. We of course won't be holding our breaths while we wait.

The scandal touches on multiple issues (funding, development, journalism, media duplicity, government among others). But on none more sensitive or dangerous than terrorism which is nurtured, encouraged and active in today's Jordan notwithstanding the pompous statements to the contrary.

08-Jan-19: In the wake of multiple murders, this violent Pal Arab village's economy just grew

Kobar [Image Source]

Providers of foreign aid to the always-insolvent Palestinian Authority - and the ordinary citizens who unwittingly contribute to the funding via their taxes - acquired yet another new beneficiary earlier today.

Assem Barghouti suspected of participating in the murder of 4 day old Amiad Ish-Ran and IDF soldiers Staff Sergeant Yuval Mor Yosef and Sergeant Yosef Cohen, and the injury of numerous others, was arrested this morning. According to Palestinian Authority law and regulations, since he was arrested by Israel for his "participation in the struggle against the occupation", Barghouti is entitled to a monthly salary from the PA of 6,000 shekels [at today's exchange rate, about US$1,637 - TOW]. According to PA law, his salary will increase over time to 12,000 shekels per month 
[at today's exchange rate, about US$3,274 - TOW]. Barghouti's starting salary is higher than most other terrorist prisoners, since he has already spent 11 years in prison for past involvement in terrorism. During his first term in prison, Barghouti received an estimated cumulative sum of 447,000 shekels [at today's exchange rate, roughly US$122,000 - TOW]. Additionally, according the PA law and regulations, upon his release, Barghouti was also entitled to a $6,000 one-time release grant and a guaranteed salary paid by the PA even if he did not work... ["Another baby murderer to receive fat salary from the PA", Palestinian Media Watch, January 8, 2019]

We have written several times concerning the tragic events leading up to today's arrest: "09-Dec-18: A shooter in a passing vehicle seriously injures several Israelis tonight near Ofra, north of Jerusalem"; "13-Dec-18: Another lethal Arab-on-Israeli shooting attack Thursday" and "21-Dec-18: After the terror attacks, the focus moves on as the quiet struggle of the victims continues".

Barghouti's younger brother, 29 year old Saleh Omar Barghouti

shot and injured seven Israeli civilians at a bus stop outside of the Ofra settlement on December 9. Among the wounded was a pregnant woman who gave birth prematurely. Her baby boy died three days later... [The two are the sons] of West Bank Hamas leader Omar Barghouti, from the village of Kobar... [Jerusalem Post, December 20, 2018]

That younger brother who was the subject of an intense manhunt for several days was arrested on December 12, 2018 when IDF soldiers, conducting a manhunt, intercepted a cab he was riding in. Saleh died in the subsequent shootout with IDF forces. A second Palestinian Arab suspect also from Kobar, Wa’ed Barghouti, was arrested separately shortly afterward.

Image Source

The Barghouti's home village of Kobar (also written Cobar, Kaubar and Khobar), controlled by the Palestinian Authority and located about 10 km north of its seat of government, Ramallah, has a population about 3,500 (as of  2007). 

Almost all of them belong to one of eight family-clans of which the most prominent is the Barghoutis. 

For a thinly-populated Palestinian Arab place, it possesses a rich and strikingly repellent charge-sheet:

• Kobar prides itself (when we checked last July) on having no fewer than 25 of its townspeople incarcerated in Israeli prisons. 
• The murderous Barghoutis are close clansmen of, and from the same village (Kobar) as, Marwan Barghouti: convicted murderer, former acolyte of Yasser Arafat and Bishop Desmond Tutu's favored candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. See "04-Apr-17: Something you rarely read about Marwan Barghouti the killer"; and "18-Apr-17: So what, in reality, is Marwan Barghouti?". 
• In relation to Marwan Barghouti, we feel we have a personal account. He personally laid out $500 [archived source quoting a 2004 Jerusalem Post report] for the making of the explosive-filled guitar case that was brought to, and exploded inside, Jerusalem's Sbarro pizzeria destroying it on August 9, 2001 and killing fifteen innocent people including our daughter Malki. 
• When another clansman from Kobar, Bilal Barghouti, a senior Hamas operative, was on the run from the Israeli security forces because of his involvement in the massacre at the Sbarro pizzeria (he was later convicted for his part), Marwan Barghouti sheltered him for a time in his home. Bilal Barghouti said for the record that, during his stay there, "he saw a number of weapons, and when he left the house Barghouti armed him with a gun for his use." [Source: CAMERA] Marwan Barghouti is an unindicted accessory after the fact to the Sbarro murders. 
• (The Sbarro bombmaker was Abdullah Barghouti, yet another a clansman though we don't think this native of Kuwait ever lived in Kobar. Some background: "20-Jun-13: Abdullah Barghouti, terrorist, bomb-maker, killer of 66 innocents, has some demands".) 
• Another clansman from Kobar: Na'el Barghouti whose background is here: "23-Feb-17: The fate of another Shalit Deal murderer and what this means for peace". Starting his career in terror with Fatah back in 1978, he converted as a prisoner to become a religious extremist and now owes his allegiance to the Islamist terrorists of Hamas. 
• Kobar is located close to the Israeli community of Halamish (also known as Neve Tuf) where three members of one family, the Salomons, were slaughtered as they sat down to their Sabbath evening meal two summers ago. The attacker was from the Barghouti's home town: 

Omar al-Abed, 19, from a Palestinian Arab settlement called Kobar - the home village of the notorious convicted Palestinian Arab terrorist Marwan Barghouti - jumped the fence in the dark and made his way to one of the nearby, brightly-lit houses. He burst into the home around 9:30 pm brandishing a kitchen knife he had purchased earlier in the day for what he admitted to be an intended knife attack on Jews... Times of Israel says the Salomons were celebrating the birth of a baby boy in the family. Also that El'ad's wife, Michal, managed to flee from the carnage and protect their five children behind a locked door in the house from where she called police. That same report quotes the 19 year-old murderer saying he was driven to carry out the killings by the incitement of "the imams on the Temple Mount". This statement ought to be getting much media amplification but almost certainly will not... ["22-Jul-17: Friday night carnage in Neve Tzuf"]

• Also from Kobar: Muhammed Tarek Ibrahim Dar Youssef whom we profiled in "27-Jul-18: A murderous Thursday night knifing attack in suburban Jerusalem; the killer, again, is a child". It's believed Kobar is where the arsonists who set the fires that destroyed a depressingly large number of Neve Tzuf's homes came from ["27-Nov-16: What lies behind the conflagration"].

For reasons best known to certain kinds of Brits, the English West Midlands industrial town of Walsall in Staffordshire chose to establish a twinning relationship with Kobar which is still in operation. What each side gets from this borders on the frankly disturbing.

Kobar's economic basis was bleak as of 2011 which is when some detailed analysis was published. Some 62.5% of its population were categorized at the time as "not economically active". The village was reported to have (and this is the whole list) an olive oil-press and two stone quarries, 14 grocery stores, one fruit and veg store, five "professional workshops", three service stores, and one shop for agricultural tools [source].

We have not yet found published data to show what share of daily life in this violent place is sustained by lifetime Pay-to-Slay stipends from the Palestinian Authority. Whatever it is, it grew larger today.

Thanks, Europe.

21-Dec-18: After the terror attacks, the focus moves on as the quiet struggle of the victims continues

Shira and Amichai Ish-Ran speak to reporters from hospital
five days ago [Image Source]. Their baby did not survive the cowardly attack.

Based on reports in the past few hours from several news sources, including Times of Israel and Jerusalem Post, here are some updates on the Arab-on-Israeli terror attacks of the past ten days.

Amichai Ish-Ran, who took three bullets in the leg as a civilian victim - alongside his wife - of a  drive-by shooter at a bus stop near the entrance to the Israeli community of Ofra ["09-Dec-18: A shooter in a passing vehicle seriously injures several Israelis tonight near Ofra, north of Jerusalem"] is thankfully doing well enough that he was released from Shaarei Zedek Medical Center yesterday (Thursday).

His wife Shira, who suffered critical injuries in the attack, is said to be "steadily recovering". She had further surgery on Wednesday and this is reported by the hospital to have been successful. The baby boy she was carrying in her womb when they were shot died four days after the attack after being born under emergency conditions by Caesarian section.

An IDF soldier, 21-year-old Naveh Rotem, who was critically injured this past Friday when stabbed and head-bashed with a rock by a Palestinian Arab at a military post outside the Israeli community of Beit El is thankfully doing much better. The attacker who fled the scene, prompting a manhunt, later turned himself in.

The soldier, had been taken to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in life-threatening condition, unconscious and hooked up to a ventilator. The hospital said in a statement that Rotem had been treated by multiple medical experts over the past week, and quoted neurosurgeon Dr. Iddo Paldor as saying he was returning home “in good condition, strong and smiling.” Rotem will undergo followup treatment. His parents said in a statement that they were “happy to thank all the hospital staff,” saying they had “felt we were in good hands..." [Times of Israel]

Shira Sabag, a civilian seriously injured in last week’s Arab-on-Israeli shooting attack ["13-Dec-18: Another lethal Arab-on-Israeli shooting attack Thursday"] at a bus stop near the small Israeli community of Givat Assaf, is said to be improving though still hospitalized at Shaare Zedek.

An IDF soldier, Netanel Felber, whose family made aliyah to Israel from the US a decade ago, is still reported to be critically injured and fighting for his life and suffering gunshot wounds to his head in the attack, He has undergone multiple surgeries at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital. Two of his army colleagues, Yovel Mor-Yosef and Yosef Cohen, were killed in the attack.

It was reported yesterday (Thursday) that the main perpetrators of both the Ofra and Givat Assaf attacks are brothers, As'am Barghouti, 32, and Saleh Omar Barghouti, 29, clansmen and residents of the same village (up until he was incarcerated) of prominent Palestinian Arab convicted terrorist Marwan Barghouti. (There's some background here: "18-Apr-17: So what, in reality, is Marwan Barghouti?") Salih Barghouti was shot last Wednesday in a village near Ramallah as he resisted apprehension by Israeli security forces. The attack allegedly carried out by As'am Barghouti happened the following day. There is an ongoing manhunt for him.

It was also reported yesterday for the first time that this As'am Barghouti was released from an Israeli prison in April 2018 after serving an 11-year sentence.

We personally sat through the 2003/4 terrorism trial of Marwan Barghouti in Tel Aviv (he was convicted and has been in prison since then). Beyond the homicides for which he was convicted, we learned that Barghouti personally laid out $500 [source] for the making of the explosive-filled guitar case that was brought to, and exploded inside, Jerusalem's Sbarro pizzeria destroying it on August 9, 2001 and killing fifteen innocent people including our daughter Malki. 

The Sbarro bombmaker, the inventor of that grotesque explosive-and-nails-filled guitar case, was another Barghouti clansman, Kuwait-born Abdullah Barghouti. About him, we have written numerous times. Here's one piece: "20-Jun-13: Abdullah Barghouti, terrorist, bomb-maker, killer of 66 innocents, has some demands".

When churchman Desmond Tutu, himself a Nobel Peace Prize winner,
nominated convicted murderer and terrorist Marwan Barghouti for the same
award, he tweeted the news with this photo of himself with Mrs Marwan
Barghouti [Twitter Source]

And yet one more clansman, Bilal Yaqub Barghouti, a senior Hamas operative, was personally sheltered by Marwan Barghouti in his home when Bill Barghouti was on the run from the Israeli security forces because of his involvement in the massacre at the Sbarro pizzeria (he was later convicted for his part). Bilal Barghouti said for the record that, during his stay there, "he saw a number of weapons, and when he left the house Barghouti armed him with a gun for his use."

Unlike most of the Sbarro Massacre plotters, Bilal Barghouti still resides in an Israeli prison cell. On being sentenced in 2003, he said: "Thank god. I regret that I did not kill even more people than I did kill". (More background here: "24-Aug-18: What aid funds handed to the Abbas regime ($1 million and growing) have done for savages who kill Jews".)

And this: Marwan Barghouti, whom the Nobel Prize-winning social activist church-man Desmond Tutu odiously nominated for a Nobel Prize in 2017, is arguably an unindicted accessory-after-the-fact to the Sbarro murders. (It would be nice if someone were to forward this post to Archbishop Tutu in South Africa.)

May all the victims needing a full and rapid recovery get it.

13-Sep-18: What do the Palestinian Arabs think?

The Oslo Accords are signed at the White House exactly 25 years ago today, on September 13, 1993 | Shimon Peres, Israel's foreign minister, signs  as Israel's prime minister Yitzhak Rabin; President Bill Clinton and the PLO's Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas look on. [Image Credit: J David AKE/AFP]

One of the most interesting things we do here is look at what the Palestinian Arabs think. As we explained in our most recent attempt to do this ["16-Jul-18: What do the Palestinian Arabs want? What do they believe? What do they think?"], looking at accurate, well-collected and intelligently analyzed opinion poll data is

invariably more valuable by far than media guesses about what the Palestinian Arabs think and want. Claims are made freely and often about Palestinian Arab aspirations. Very often, though, the data tell a story that's at total variance from what's being claimed about them... [source] 

Bluntly, much of what the mainstream media claim about Palestinian Arab public opinion is just plain wrong. We make that statement on the basis of carefully reviewing the work of a Palestinian Arab organization called The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR). It's headed by a respected professional, Dr. Khalil Shikaki. We have no personal connection with him or his work. His reputation for objectivity is why we pay attention. Here are some of our previous analyses:

• 10-Dec-14: What else do Palestinian Arabs want, beyond the 80% who say killing of ordinary Israelis is a good thing?
• 22-Sep-15: What do the Palestinian Arabs think?
• 03-Nov-15: What do they mean when the Palestinian Arabs say they oppose terror?
• 14-Dec-15: What do the Palestinian Arabs think?
• 16-May-16: What do the Palestinian Arabs think?
• 15-Jun-16: What do the Palestinian Arabs think?
• 26-Sep-17: What do the Palestinian Arabs think now?
• 16-Jul-18: What do the Palestinian Arabs want? What do they believe? What do they think?
• (Click here for the full list.)

Here are some insights we found PSR Public Opinion Poll Number 69, published yesterday (Wednesday September 12, 2018). It's based on survey data collected face-to-face in the previous week from a total sample size of 1,270 Palestinian Arab adults.

Political leaders?

From our perspective and with Arab-on-Israeli terrorism very much on our minds, the most clear-cut insights have to do with Mahmoud Abbas, the fading president-for-life of the Palestinian Authority:

• More than six out of ten Palestinian Arabs want him to resign. This is very slightly higher than the last poll showed. Broken down, the rejection stands at 52% in the West Bank; 78% in the Gaza Strip.
• An overwhelming majority disagree with his most important domestic policies. Overall about half of the Palestinian Arabs now see Abbas' PA as a burden rather than an asset.
• So where do they want power to reside? Well, fully two-thirds are against his decision (incapable at this stage of being implemented) to disarm the terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip.
• Furthermore, most reject his demand that Hamas hand control over the Gaza Strip to the so-called reconciliation government controlled by his PA. 
• Related to this, most Palestinian Arabs say they support Hamas’ efforts to reach a long-term Tahdia agreement with Israel even if the reconciliation government cannot be created. (Tahdia or Tahdiya is an Arabic word that is usually translated cease-fire or calming-down. It does not mean truce or peace.)
• These data points show that Hamas gets more overall trust and backing now than Abbas and his Fatah/PA/PLO factions. But both get less support than they had when the last survey was published three months ago.
• In party-political terms, if elections (which were last held since 2006) took place for the Palestinian Legislative Council and its 132 seats, 27% say they would support Hamas (down on the summer poll results); 36% would vote for Fatah (also down on the summer results); all the other parties combined would get 10%. The 28% who say they are undecided would be more numerous than Hamas' voters. By comparison, Hamas defeated the long-dominant Fatah in those 2006 elections, ending up with 76 seats out of the 132. Chaos ensued, followed, in June 2007, by the eruption of open fighting between the armed forces of Fatah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The winners of the blood-bath (the physical one, not the electoral one) were Hamas who have held on tightly to control until today. No parliamentary elections have happened in the ensuing 12 years, and none are realistically in prospect.
• But leaving aside the factions and focusing on the personalities, the picture gets confusing. If a two-horse election race had been held last week: 
• If it were Mahmoud Abbas up against Ismail Haniyeh (of Hamas), Abbas wins 47% to 45%. 
• If instead of Abbas, the Fatah candidate were the imprisoned murderer Marwan Barghouti, he would steamroller Haniyeh by the substantial margin of 58% against 37%.

The role of the United States?

It's no secret that the Palestinian Arab leadership is having a hard time with the Trump Administration. How have such moves by the US as ending most of its cash aid to the PA, cancelling its contributions to UNRWA, moving its Tel Aviv embassy to Jerusalem affected Palestinian Arab opinion?

• An overwhelming 90% now view the US as biased towards Israel.
• Half want their leaders to absolutely reject what the pollsters call the US “Deal of the Century” - the terms of which no one has actually seen yet - because "it will certainly be bad for Palestinians"
• Moreover, most oppose the resumption of any dialogue with the US.
• Most also are against going back to negotiations with Israel. 

How bad are things?

The poll looks at how ordinary people feell about the overall condition of where they live. The results are bleak. What proportion think their conditions are "positive"?

• In the Gaza Strip, a whopping 5%
• In the West Bank, just 19%.
• Overall, 77% worry that reductions in foreign aid from the US and others will generate more unemployment growth, more poverty and still further deterioration in daily living conditions.
• Who's to blame for all this awfulness? 43% say it's the PA and its head, Mahmoud Abbas - and note that Gazans are twice as likely to say this as West Bankers. 24% blame Hamas. 8% say it's Egypt that caused the problems. 17% say it's "others". 
• Presumably making matters even worse, 59% of Palestinian Arabs - not surprisingly, given the nature of the two regimes in question - say they cannot criticize the Palestinian Authority (except to the pollsters) without fear. And 77% say there is corruption in the PA's organs 
• A third of all Palestinian Arabs say they want to emigrate if they can. This trend is much stronger in Gaza (about 50%) than in the West Bank (22%). 

Violence?

• Two-thirds - and this holds equally true in Gaza and in the West Bank - favour allowing the "armed battalions", meaning terrorist factions and their weapons, where they currently are.
• 68% support (and 25% oppose) the PA decision to cease security coordination with Israel. At the same time, 69% think the Palestinian Arab leadership will never actually implement that decision.

Peace?

Has life gotten better or worse since the Oslo Accords were signed between Arafat's PA and the government of Israel in 1993? And how will peace look when it arrives?

• 73% say "conditions today are worse" than before Oslo.
• 36% blame this on Israel for "refusing to end its occupation"
• 35% say its the failure of the "international community" to press Israel harder
• 65% believe the Oslo Accords "damaged the national interest".
• Support for the two-state solution has risen slightly compared with three months ago: 47%.
• When asked to choose among (a) the two-state solution, (b) the one-state solution and (c) any other third solution, the two-state solution wins with 53%.
• At the same time, 56% say the two-state solution is no longer practical because of Israeli settlement. 
• Do they agree that the chances for the creation of a Palestinian Arab state side-by-side with the State of Israel in the next five years are slim or nonexistent? Yes, say 72% of Palestinian Arabs.
• And for 30%, the preferred next stage entails waging armed struggle against "the Israeli occupation”. 39% say "negotiation is the most effective means of establishing a Palestinian state next to the state of Israel".
• Don't expect or look for coherence or consistency.
• 80% think the Arab world doesn't see Palestine as "its primary cause", which sounds right to us.
• Depressingly, 57% "believe that Israel’s long-term aspiration is to expand the state of Israel to stretch from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and to expel the Palestinian population". 

The biggest challenge?

What do Palestinian Arabs see as the most serious problem facing their society today? They're facing in numerous different directions.

• 27% say poverty and unemployment 
• 25% say the "occupation" and "settlement" activities (they mean by Israel)
• 22% say corruption in Palestinian Arab public institutions
• 20% say the "siege" (they mean by Israel) of the Gaza Strip
• 3% say the absence of national unity.

All in all, it's hard not to feel a sense of despair when confronted with views like those on which the PSR reports each 90 days. So much effort, so much news-reporting, so much foreign aid, so much waste... so little of anything constructive to show for it - except that a plurality of them now agrees that it's poverty that tops their list of challenges. 

But they're hopelessly divided on that too. 

And catastrophically ill-served by venal political operatives and self-serving insiders who have never shown the smallest interest or ability in addressing that vital issue among the many on their people's agenda.

This post, like a number of others before it, has been translated to Polish ("Co myślą palestyńscy Arabowie?") by courtesy of Malgorzata Koraszewska over on the Listy z naszego sadu website. Our sincere thanks to her, and great appreciation to readers of this blog in Poland.

23-Aug-18: New data: How the terrorists who bombed the Sbarro pizzeria fared financially

The numbers in the chart below are a dramatically-upward revision of data that were released two weeks ago. They take account of more members of the Hamas gang that carried out the August  9, 2001 atrocity at Jerusalem's Sbarro pizzeria. The bottom line in this new chart - US$843,841 - is almost three times the first calculation.

Our thanks to the good people of Palestinian Media Watch who focus energy, determination and sustained effort on bringing to light the heavily-camouflaged, massively-destructive Rewards for Terror scheming that is at the core of the Palestinian Authority's ethos and actions.

[Since posting this, we compiled some background on which terrorists received generous payments from the PA for their involvement in the Sbarro atrocity. It's here: "24-Aug-18: Nearly $1 million: What aid funds handed to the Abbas regime have done for the savages who kill Jews"]
The Mahmoud Abbas regime's slavish devotion to financially incentivizing ever more terror among its people is highlighted in this news report from ten days ago.

Headlined "Hamdallah: We are continuing to provide all types of support to the prisoners", the report carried by the notoriously pro-terror Ma'an News Agency on August 13, 2018, and reprinted by Palwatch here, says

"[PA] Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah met today (Monday) [Aug. 13, 2018] with a delegation from the [PLO] Commission of Prisoners' Affairs led by Director of the Commission Qadri Abu Bakr in his office in Ramallah... The prime minister again emphasized the firm position of the leadership – led by [Palestinian Authority] President Mahmoud Abbas and the government – and its commitment to pay the allowances (mukhassasat) of the families of the martyrs (shahids) and prisoners, despite the Israeli occupation’s decision and its threats to deduct these allowances from the Palestinian tax money [referring to Israeli law to deduct terror salaries from PA tax money]. Hamdallah emphasized that despite the challenges, the provision of all types of support to the Commission of Prisoners' Affairs in its lofty and patriotic activities for our brave prisoners in the occupation's prisons is continuing. He also emphasized that the prisoners are the spearhead of the Palestinian struggle, and that they are the ones who have sacrificed the years of their lives for our just cause."

Lofty and patriotic: words to keep in mind when thinking about the calculated Arab-on-Israeli murder of children.