Sweden and the United Kingdom took steps to recognize a Palestinian State in October 2014. The assumed reason stated by pundits was to pressure Israel to move forward with peace talks. The only issue is that facts and reason do not support pressuring Israel.
Palestinians were last polled at the end of September 2014 and Israelis in June. Regarding a two state solution:
53% of Palestinians support a two-state solution, 46% oppose it 60% of Israelis support a two-state solution with only 32% opposed
That means that the Palestinians are much more against a two state solution than the Israelis (who favor it by almost a 2-to-1 margin).
What about using negotiations versus force?
For the Palestinians, 63% believe Hamas’ armed approach should be used in West Bank 55% of Palestinians would vote for the anti-Semitic Hamas party which wants to destroy Israel, if presidential elections were held now (The use force is not about attacking the Israeli army but all Israelis: the same percentage – 54% – were in favor of the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli teenagers who were hitchhiking home from school) Among Israelis, 60% would return to the negotiating table today
So the Palestinians clearly prefer the use of force while the Israelis prefer negotiations.
So who actually needs pressure to advance in peace talks, Israelis or Palestinians?
Sources:
Palestinian poll: http://www.pcpsr.org/en/node/496
Israeli poll: http://en.idi.org.il/tools-and-data/guttman-center-for-surveys/the-peace-index/
Israeli poll: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-peace-conference/1.601996
FirstOneThrough on UK’s blind spot: https://firstonethrough.wordpress.com/2014/08/29/no-disappearing-in-the-land-of-blind/