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 federative solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict among the Jewish political leadership and general public of Israel suggests that, despite the Palestinian Intifada and the Gulf War, there is a potential basis within Israel for federal approaches to intercommunal and interstate conflict resolution. Both leaders and the public are dissatisfied with the status quo. Political leaders are more supportive than the public of federative arrangements, while the public is somewhat more supportive of an autonomy arrangement for the Palestinians than it was before the Gulf crisis. While the Intifada appears to have produced a slightly more dovish trend among leaders and among voters, the Gulf War appears not to have produced any basic changes in the views of political leaders or general citizens.