The Future of Palestine

An Interview with Jonathan Cook

By SAKER
CounterPunch

"First, I would like to turn to the "Israel-Palestine: One Country, One State" conference you just attended organized by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid on the future of Palestine. What was its purpose, its importance, and what impact do you expect it to have?

What was the mood of the conference participants? What did they foresee as the likely future developments in Palestine?

Turning to Palestine now, could you describe the situation in the West Bank? What is the influence of Hamas and Fatah there? How much support is there, in your opinion, for Abbas?

What have you observed is going on in the Israeli public opinion? Putting aside the settlers and their supporters, why is it that the Israeli public is not demanding a change in policies? Don't they see that the "beat the Arabs - they only understand force" theory has totally discredited itself?

To what degree can Israeli actions be explained by Judaism and its teachings? Is racism towards the Arabs a determining factor here or not?

What do Israelis think about the US neocons, do they see them as true friends of Israel or not?

Lebanon: many in the region say that the war last summer was only a first round, and that this war will resume in the near future. Do you agree? If yes, what do you think the Israelis could reasonably hope to achieve by resuming this war? Do they seriously hope to "disarm Hezbollah"?

In your experience, what does the Jewish "street" say about a possible war between the US and Iran? Is a US attack on Iran seen as a real possibility and what do you expect the Palestinian response to such a situation would be?

Much is made of Hezbollah's popularity in Palestine. How popular are Iran and Khamenei or Hezbollah and Nasrallah in Palestine?"