[MMMMMM]

To address your first point:

There is a world of difference between Americans' preferences between political parties, and Palestinians' acceptance or non-acceptance of Israel's right to exist. Whether Americans choose Democrat or Republican leaders, the country will go on and things will continue more or less as before. In the case of Palestinians' choosing between co-existence with Israel or insisting on the elimination of Israel, the end results will be dramatically different for all concerned. And it only takes a significant fraction of people--considerably less than 50%-who are committed to non-acceptance to ensure that peace remains impossible. So the percentage of Palestinians who believe in the necessity of the elimination of Israel is very significant at over 50%, in terms of its effect on the chances for peace--it literally makes it impossible. The half that is opposed to peace can always nix it through violence--again, it's not at all akin to Americans choosing between Prsidential candidates. In this sense the "nays" have far more power in this matter.

I'm not sure that all of Pipes' conclusions flow from the statistics he presented, but with the exception of one vital point, I don't think they are the gist of the article anyway. That one vital point is that in order for there to be peace, the Palestinians have to give up on the impossible dream of eliminating Israel by force and establishing a greater Palestine in its place. According to the poll, they haven't--or at least enough Palestinians haven't to ensure that peace remains impossible.

What Israel ought to do is another matter and a complex one, but I think Pipes hit it on the head as far as identifying one of the critical prerequisites for peace: Palestinian acceptance of Israel's right to exist. Without this, how can there ever be peace?