While America, the European Union, and the UN give lip service to the notion of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, no one bothers to ask Palestinian residents of the Holy City what they themselves prefer. A little-noted but significant survey from the respected firm Pechter Middle East Polls found that only 30 percent of East Jerusalem’s 280,000 Palestinians would prefer to live in a new nation of Palestine in the event of a two state solution, while a full 35 percent would choose to live in Israel.

Moreover, the survey showed 40 percent of Palestinians saying they’d want to move to Israel if their neighborhood became part of Palestine. These startling numbers show why a peace settlement has proven so elusive: among the biggest concentration of Palestinians in the world, a plurality prefers Israeli citizenship.