The international community—spurred by renewed US interest—is gearing up for another major push for peace in the Middle East: President Bush recently dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to garner support for an international conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Tony Blair is leading the latest attempt of the Quartet—which includes the UN, the US, the EU and Russia—to salvage its “road map” for peace.

But polling data suggests that the Palestinians themselves may be wary of such multilateral efforts. Though the Palestinian public strongly supports multilateralism in principle, they show reluctance to submit to multilateral decision making. This appears to be derived from their fear that such decisions would inevitably be controlled by the United States, a country they greatly mistrust.