Can We Expect Peace Between Israel & Palestinians?

Israelis Palestinian issue has been a burning for more than half of a century. It led to several large scale and limited wars in twentieth and twenty first centuries. After being disowned from their territory Palestinians have been struggling to attain their statehood in whatever the territory they were left with. But they could not achieve that goal due to policies of Israel. Palestine conflict is one of such issues that reveal the failure of the entire civilized world to help them reach a settlement.


The western world led by U.S along with some support in the Arab countries is bent upon compelling Iran from acquiring nuclear technology but the Palestinian issue seems less significant to them. At times the lip service is made against Israel expansionist policies but they never talk of isolating Israel by implementing sanctions against it. How can Palestinians expect peace with Israel when the whole of their nations stands behind their leadership in carrying out the illegal construction? Does Israel really want peace with Palestinians? What should be the role of international community for protecting the rights of Palestinians? If U.S. can launch a whole scale diplomatic campaign for paving the way to impose further sanctions against Iran than what should U.S. do for Palestinians? Is it not the failure of those leaders who talk of global governance and ignore the sufferings of people like Palestinians or Kashmiris?

Summary of Global Opinion Polls Report # 112

This week report consists of 21 surveys. One of these survey is a multi-country survey of Gallup USA covering 155 countries, while the rest of 20 surveys are national surveys.

Complete Global Opinion Report No. 112 can be reached at Gilani Foundation.

Water Scarcity and Future of The World

Population growth, urban development, farm production, and climate change is increasing competition for fresh water and producing shortages so acute that virtually every industry in the world anticipates sweeping systemic transformation over the next decade in their strategic planning, production practices, and business models. This is the conclusion of a Globescan leaders survey on water scarcity.

This suggests that water scarcity will have profound impacts on global businesses. Other than business and economy the water crisis will have significant political and social consequences as well. It can be easily comprehended that increasing gap between fresh water supply and demand will lead to several issues with in nations and conflicts between neighboring nations. These conditions possess potential to bring world wide changes; Industries locations might change towards places where fresh water supply is ensured, hydro power projects might suffer resulting in energy disorders and impacts on economies, farming cycles disorder will lead to famines, social life styles may get hurt along with health hazards if the number of people having access to water declines further instead of increasing. These conditions may pose eventual threat to life at this planet.


These conditions definitely demand more responsible reaction from all institutions involved and citizens themselves. Under such circumstances as a citizen of this planet what role would you expect from states, industrialists, and citizens?

Disapproval of Taliban: Victory for U.S. or Disapproval of violence in Pakistan & Afghanistan?

Last week Gallup USA survey made headlines in newspapers regarding the increasing unpopularity of Taliban’s in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The survey shows that Taliban has lost their approval in both of these countries and there is very little support for them left in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is especially true of Pakistan according to this survey result where just 4 percent of people still believed that Taliban’s are having positive impact in some areas of the country while almost 8 in ten said they are having negative impact. Should this be considered a victory for U.S? Or it might be considered as a support for the Pakistan government military initiative against Taliban.

Pakistanis witnessed the deadliest attacks in the year 2009 after the military launched campaign against Taliban’s in South Waziristan. Hundreds of people lost their lives in suicide and car bomb blasts in almost all the major cities of Pakistan. North West Frontier province was the most affected one and as a result the Taliban today has least support in that province. Baluchistan was least affected by the violence wave and as a result still a quarter of residents see some positive aspects of Taliban. So the frequent incidents of violence which inflicted heavy loses to civilians made Taliban unpopular in Pakistan.

Disapproval of Taliban did not mean approval of U.S or war on terror, even probably not the approval of Pakistani’s military offensive against Taliban. As at the same point of time we see a further decline in U.S. favorability ratings in Pakistan and Afghanistan which was already poor. Pakistanis support for military campaign against Taliban is also correlated with the increase in violence in Pakistan.

Does this not suggests that people in Pakistan and Afghanistan have not only disapproved Taliban rather they have also disapproved U.S. leadership and its war on terror. Does it also not suggest that people in these countries are more inclined towards peaceful means of settlement rather than the method adopted by U.S i.e. the war on terror?

Christmas Day Attack and the Fate of Nigeria

On Christmas day a Nigerian Umar Faruk Abdulmatlab made a failed attempt to blow Detroit bound airliner. This has been widely condemned across the world including Nigeria as well. Overwhelming majority of Nigerians condemned Umar Faruk and feel that this will have a negative impact on the image of Nigeria in the world. President Obama could not speak with his Nigerian counterpart as he has been out of country for now about two months due to medical reasons. Moreover the relations of Nigeria were already not very good with the United States for the last few years. Coupled with the fact that Nigeria is the second Muslim country after Palestinian territories where there is a high support for suicide attack. Eventually Untied States under such circumstances blacklisted Nigeria.

This would ultimately have consequences for Nigerian image abroad. The above facts raise several questions in mind. The nature of terrorism these days is transnational just as the issue of climate change or financial crisis. Often states are not backing the terrorists which seem to be the case of Nigeria as well. But the states or nations have to pay for the acts that have actually been committed by a single person or a group of persons. Blacklisting Nigeria means all the Nigerians will now be looked at suspiciously.

Keeping in view the fact that U.S. blacklisted Nigeria for genuine apprehensions but should it be considered as a right approach to deal with such crisis? Of course it is a very complex and sensitive issue. But Nigerian are after all humans like Americans. They are also very sensitive, and all of them are not like Umar Faruk. Do we not need to restore the confidence in each others nations to deal with the issue of terrorism today?

Summary of Global Opinion Report 109

This report consists of 23 national surveys. This week no multi-country survey could be added to the report.
Full text of the report can be reached at Gilani Foundation.

Why do American People Always Sympathize With Israel?

U.S. has been playing a major role in Middle East since times Israel was not established. American people had been having very positive view of Israel and felt more sympathetic towards Israel in conflict with Palestinians. A recent survey of Gallup USA shows that more than six in ten (63%) Americans say they feel sympathetic towards Israel in this conflict. This is a new high level of support since first Gulf war when Iraqi missile hit Israel. Keeping in view such large of sympathesirs for Israel in U.S, can anybody expect justice for Palestinians or even peace between Israel and Palestine?

When there are sympathies for one party in a conflict, you can not expect justice from the arbitrator. The way U.S. has supported Israel on all the occasions historically can be comprehended keeping in view a vast supportive public ground in U.S. Israel is among the most favored nations for Americans and Palestinians on the contrary are the least on the same count. How did Americas generate such perceptions? It probably be by the rocket attack of Palestinians across border or possibly be stone missiles thrown at Israeli soldiers by Palestinian civilians. These rockets of course result in injuries for several Israelis and might be the source for acquiring sympathies.

But on the other hand thousand of Palestinians; women, children, old and yound have lost their lives, why their miseries could not not generate similar sympathies for them among American people? Or why brutalities against innocent civilians could not generate dissatisfaction for Israel within Americas? Mostly people say American 'media' is responsible for this fact. Almost all media giants in U.S. in particular and the world in general are owned by Jews. So they present the stories in a way to attract sympathies for themselves and dissatisfaction for Palestinians. But some might say that today there are thousands of internet websites that are providing objective information about this issue through reports, videos, images, and interviews and Americans especially are among the top internet users in the world. So the effectof conventional media alone can not produce such high figures in favor of Israel as have been mentioned above.

What do you think are the factors shaping positive opinions of Israel among Americas? Why do Americans feel more sympathethic towards Israel? Why do Palestinians despite losing men, women, and children are not able to acquire the support of American publics?

Global Opinion Report 108

This report comprises of 29 surveys from around the world. Two of these surveys are multi-country in nature. These two deal with Arab world and North Africa. The rest of 27 surveys are national surveys from various countries. This week report covered public opinion in Middle East, North Africa, West and Central Africa, East Europe, West Europe, North America, Latin America and Australasia.

For Complete report on Global Public Opinion please visit Gilani foundation.