Monday, January 19, 2009

Jewish Israelis Support the Two State Solution?



From Jews sans Frontieres - Gabriel

Now what does this tell you? Slightly better than one in five Jewish Israelis support significant territorial "concession" (that's the Israeli terminology) that perhaps might be compatible with Palestinian sovereignty in a subsection of the West Bank. Perhaps, because there is no evidence in this graph for support for water rights, border controls, etc. And support for the right of Palestinians for a military is non-existent. From the same survey, support in 2007 for evacuation of the settlers in the large settlement blocks (such as Maale Edumim and Ariel and the seam line settlements) is 5%. Namely, only one in twenty Jewish Israeli supports a two state solution based on international law, the 1967 borders, U.N.S.C. 242 as commonly interpreted, and all the Arab peace initiatives.

He concludes:
Another thing to note is how consistent the results are. The willingness to part with the Jordan Valley is the most important indicator because the Jordan Valley alone offers a putative Palestinian state a border with another country. The valley is settled only by relatively small kibutzim and carries little religious significance. Yet even at the height of the hope for a settlement, before the Second Intifada began, only a third of Jewish Israelis were willing to concede this area. (To be fair, that 33% support was much larger than the close to zero support among the political class.)


4 Comments:

At 5:47 PM, Blogger Nevin said...

Thanks for an interesting read. We must not forget the role of the Media on how one develops ideas about current events. I am not exactly sure the Israeli media is doing justice for it's people. So the opinion of the average person in Israel is formed by what is fed to them through their politicians and media outlets. How much reality these graphs represent is a little bewildering for me.

Thanks... :)

 
At 7:08 PM, Blogger Gert said...

Nevin:

The reality behind such polls is always somewhat questionable but even with considerable margin of error taken into account, this would seem to help explain why basically no Israeli government has halted settlement building in the WB, since 1967.

 
At 11:23 PM, Blogger Nevin said...

Gert, you have point!

I came across your blog through Richard. I will be following for a while.. :)
best regards
n.

 
At 4:16 AM, Blogger Frank Partisan said...

I downloaded and plan to read that document.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home