ISRAEL - 48% of Arabs Do Not Want a State
US President Joe Biden was expected to push for the opening of a de facto embassy to the Palestinians in eastern Jerusalem during his visit. He was also scheduled to visit East Jerusalem without Israeli officials.
The net effect of these moves would be to strengthen Palestinian claims to the eastern half of Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
In a poll commissioned by the Washington Institute for Near East Studies and carried out by the Palestine Center for Public Opinion, it was found that almost half (48% plurality) of the Arabs living in Jerusalem do not want to become citizens of a State of Palestine.
Only 43% of Arabs living in East Jerusalem said they want to be incorporated into a Palestinian state.
Equally surprising is that even among Palestinians living in areas already under full Palestinian Authority control (Ramallah, Bethlehem, Nablus, etc.) a strong 25% minority said they, too, would opt to become Israeli, given the chance.
In other words, the outside forces pushing for a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital seem to want it even more than the Palestinian Arabs themselves.
-www.israeltoday.co.il, 13 July 2022
Arno's Commentary
This revealing article published by Israel Today sheds light on a very important subject: not wanting to be governed by Arab-Palestinians. Checking the countries to the north, Lebanon and Syria, there is utter chaos when compared with Israel. To the east is the country of Jordan, almost totally dependent on foreign aid. To the south of Israel lies Egypt; again, no comparison to Israel!
Life expectancy GDP per capita
Israel 83.4 years $38,300 (2020)
Lebanon 78.7 years $11,600
Syria 74.3 years $2,900 (2015)
Jordan 76.0 years $9,800
Egypt 74.5 years $12,000
When we ask the question, why such a great difference between Israel and its Arab neighbors, we believe the reason is that Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan have occupied much promised Israeli territory, and to a lesser degree Egypt. The blessing is self-evident: Israel is the only functioning, civilized democracy in the entire Middle East. We insist that Arab-occupied Israeli territory is a contributing factor to the turmoil experienced in Lebanon and Syria.
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
