Re your statement, It's entirely political - getting people whose only interest is to destroy Israel to agree to it's existence.
I think you may not realise the extent to which it does work both ways.
Excerpt from Haaretz Sept 18 2024 without links.
War, Apartheid, Dehumanization: Polls Reveal Bleak Parallels Between Palestinians and Israelis
The latest joint Palestinian-Israeli Pulse survey shows a striking symmetry: Both Israelis and Palestinians feel that their victimhood justifies violence toward the other side
Eighty-five percent of Israeli Jews recently agreed, in a new Israeli-Palestinian joint survey, that "the victimization of Jews is the worst compared to other people that suffered from persecution and injustice." Among Palestinians, 83 percent agreed with the same statement, arguing that Palestinian victimization is the worst compared to all others.
Polls are an imperfect instrument, but the undeniable symmetry of responses to a few questions in this latest poll, conducted between July 18-29 by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah and the International Program in Conflict Resolution and Mediation at Tel Aviv University, seems to explain everything: the past, present, and likely future of the conflict.
As the poll shows, feelings of victimization fuel justifications for war and violence. Eighty percent of Palestinians believe that their recent years of suffering in Gaza justify October 7, and 84 percent of Israeli Jews believe that October 7 justifies the war. Eighty-nine percent of Palestinians believe the land "very much" belongs to them and 92 percent of Israeli Jews say the land very much belongs to them.
Over 60 percent of Palestinians believe that Israel's aim in the war in Gaza is to commit genocide – the top response out of four choices, three of them less extreme than that. The second most popular response, selected by over one-quarter of Palestinians (27 percent), was that Israel wants to conquer the land and expel the people. The remainder chose one of two milder answers, but only 2 percent believe that Israel seeks only to defend itself and restore security.
Similarly, two-thirds (66 percent) of Israeli Jews believe that on October 7, Palestinians sought to commit genocide against Jews. Precisely 27 percent believe that Palestinians wanted to conquer the land and expel the people. Only 3 percent believe Palestinians sought to defend themselves.
Expectations for the future follow these dour attitudes; most expect the war to spread. Two-thirds of Palestinians and a similar portion of Israelis (70 percent) think the war will expand to the West Bank. An absolute majority, over half on both sides, think the war will go regional and might even draw in Iran.
(List of related Haaretz articles)
- Whether Harris or Trump, the U.S. won't fix Israel and Palestine
- Netanyahu's map shows Israel 'from the river to the sea.' It's no accident
- 'Israel's right to self-defense has a limit': Top EU diplomat on Netanyahu, settlers, Gaza
The symmetry of trends can seem surprising. Israelis and Palestinians experience vastly different realities of the occupation and this war. But the mind-set of victimhood and justifications for hostility are so similar as to represent almost a mirror image.
( End of first paragraphs of a much longer , thoughtful article which is worth looking up on archive ph)
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