While America began providing funds to the Jewish state in order to bolster a cold-war ally, the benefits to the American economy and the American people of doing so have only increased since the fall of the Soviet Union. This is not only because Jerusalem spends most of the military-aid money it receives on U.S.-manufactured hardware, writes Frank Musmar:

In an extensive report on a major survey of Palestinian public opinion, David Pollock sums up his key findings. Above all, the results suggest that large numbers of Palestinians are willing to make compromises with Israel in the short term, but tend to harbor maximalist, even militant, long-term goals: