Israeli Leadership and Public Attitudes Toward Federal Solutions for the Arab-Israeli Conflict Before and After Desert Storm

This first empirical investigation of support for federativesolutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict among the Jewish politicalleadership and general public of Israel suggests that, despitethe Palestinian Intifada and the Gulf War, there is a potentialbasis within Israel for federal approaches to intercommunaland interstate conflict resolution. Both leaders and the publicare dissatisfied with the status quo. Political leaders aremore supportive than the public of federative arrangements,while the public is somewhat more supportive of an autonomyarrangement for the Palestinians than it was before the Gulfcrisis. While the Intifada appears to have produced a slightlymore dovish trend among leaders and among voters, the Gulf Warappears not to have produced any basic changes in the viewsof political leaders or general citizens.