WITH OR WITHOUT YOU:

Moderate voices vie for clout within Hamas: A recent poll shows most Palestinians prefer negotiation with Israel to letting it act unilaterally. (Ilene R. Prusher, 5/19/06, The Christian Science Monitor)

When imprisoned Palestinians from both Hamas and Fatah last week issued a joint platform that calls for a Palestinian state with the "1967 boundaries," Hamas was caught off guard. Leaders of Hamas, the Islamic militant organization-cum-political party now at the helm of the Palestinian Authority, have said that they will not recognize Israel or endorse a two-state solution - and the prison statement implied something quite the contrary. [...]

Most Palestinians, according to a poll released two weeks ago, think they would fare better by working out their differences with Israel around a negotiating table than they would by dealing themselves out of and having Israel redraw its borders without Palestinian input. Just under three-quarters of Palestinians say they would prefer a negotiated solution to unilateral withdrawals, such as Israel's pull-out from Gaza last year, pollsters at the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion and Survey Research in Ramallah found.

The end is the same, but they can have some say in the means.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 19, 2006 5:31 PM