The slick advertising campaign has begun!
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been saying that he’ll ask the Israeli public to approve any drastic (is that the right adjective?) “peace” sic treaty his staff comes up with.
According to sources in the Prime Minister’s Office who spoke to Hebrew Daily Israel Hayom, the move aims to advance the diplomatic process, and shows how serious Netanyahu is about resuming talks.
Whenever he talks about “painful concessions” I and he knows too that he’s just weakening Israel for defeat at war.
“We must … find a way to forge a lasting peace with the Palestinians,” says Netanyahu, and that will mean “painful concessions” on Israel’s part that include ceding some places that are part of the Jewish homeland.
There is no way that a true, genuine peace agreement can be painful. And there’s no way that a shrunken, amputated Israel will be secure and safe. The word “peace” has become a euphemism for an Israel on the way to destruction, G-d forbid.
In the meantime, the Israeli Left is trying to brainwash the nation that “everyone” wants peace at any price. IMRA posted an interesting post about the public relations campaign now going on to distort the news of Israeli opinion polls:
HAARETZ COOKS POLL QUESTION TO SHOW SUPPORT FOR DEAL – WHILE 61%:26% ISRAELIS OPPOSE DEAL Dr. Aaron Lerner – IMRA 24 July 20013
The folks at Haaretz needed a poll showing that the public supports a peace agreement but they had a problem:
The moment that you actually say anything about the agreement, the public is overwhelmingly opposed.
That’s what Maagar – Interdisciplinary Research and Consulting Institute Ltd., managed by Professor Yitzhak Katz found in a poll of 503 Israelis they carried out on 22 July for Channel 10. In principle, are you for or against signing a full peace agreement with the Palestinians on the basis of the 1967 borders, including the exchange of territory and release of prisoners?
Total: For 29% Against 57% Other replies 14% and it gets only worse when you spell it out even more:
Are you for or against signing a peace agreement with the Palestinians on the basis of the 1967 borders, including the evacuation of communities with the exception of settlement blocs, exchange of territory, Palestinians recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish People, and release of Palestinians with “blood on their hands”.”
Total: For 26% Against 61% Other 13%
So here is the propaganda piece that Haaretz commissioned in a poll carried out 23 July – by Dialogue under the supervision of statistics professor and pollster Camil Fuchs of a representative sample of 511 adult Israelis (including Israeli Arabs). Published in Haaretz on 24 July 2013
Assume that the Prime Minister reaches an agreement with the Palestinians and brings it to a national referendum, would you support or oppose it? Support 39% Think support 16% Think oppose 5% Oppose 20% Don’t know 20%
What’s the problem with this question?
There are, no doubt, many respondents who were in the “plus column” who support Netanyahu and were thinking that, in the absence of information about the deal, that a deal that Netanyahu brings to a national referendum would have to be radically different than the kind of deal that the talking heads have been outlining for the last two decades. Take note the huge “Don’t know” response.
The Haaretz poll is meaningless because if and when we reach the point that there is a national referendum the details of the deal will very much be the subject of considerable debate.
Remember that democracy is the rule of fools, and most people are easy to trick. I am not optimistic about the results of such a referendum, and that’s for a few reasons.
- It will be professionally worded to give the impression that the result will be peace.
- The campaign will stress that if we don’t sign two terrible things will happen. One that the world will hate us and two that there will be immediate war.
In the time of the Bible, very soon after Moses led the Jewish People from slavery to Pharaoh in Egypt, he sent out twelve tribal leaders, one from each tribe, to stakeout the Land in preparation for immediate entry. Ten out of twelve came back with frightening reports that although the Land was rich and fertile, there was no way the Jewish People could win any war against the present residents. Democracy! The two dissenting leaders, Joshua and Caleb tried to convince the people otherwise and were voted down in that early referendum. Democracy!