Posted on 10/20/2001 3:37:13 AM PDT by Fighting Irish
JERUSALEM (AP) – After a year of violence and stalled peace talks, more than half the Israeli people still favor creation of a Palestinian state in a peace agreement, according to a poll published today.
A Gallup poll in the Maariv daily said 61 percent of the respondents favor creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. However, 58 percent oppose including any part of Jerusalem in the new nation.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said this week that he would agree to a Palestinian state with strict limitations, and that all of Jerusalem must remain under Israeli sovereignty. However, he said, there could be no negotiations until the violence ends.
The Palestinians demand a state in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem and a hotly disputed site in the Old City of Jerusalem, holy to both Muslims and Jews.
For decades, a huge majority of Israelis opposed creation of a Palestinian state, but attitudes began changing after Israel and the Palestinians started signing interim peace accords in 1993.
However, the breakdown of peace talks and a year of violence have hardened Israeli attitudes toward the Palestinians. The poll showed that 60 percent of the people consider Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat an enemy, while only 30 percent see him as a partner for negotiations.
If an agreement is not possible, Israelis are divided over a solution. The poll showed that 36 percent favor a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza, 22 percent recommend recapturing the territories from the Palestinians and 37 percent favor maintaining the present situation, under which Arafat's Palestinian Authority has varying degrees of control over about 40 percent of the West Bank and two thirds of Gaza.
In another question, the poll found that 75 percent of the Israeli public favor the US-led attacks in Afghanistan.
Among Jewish Israelis, the rate of support was 85 percent. However, only 6 percent of Israel's minority Arab citizens favored the attacks, while 89 percent were opposed.
The poll questioned 592 Israelis and quoted a 4.5 percent margin of error.
1) The writer says "more than half the Israeli people still favor" this stupid idea. Notice how many were polled? Was there an Aliyah out of the homeland recently? Are there only a handful of Israelis left?
2) How many Jewish Israelis were polled? I'll bet a box of Cubans not one was!
I believe as long as the Palestinians want that little piece of real estate there will never be peace nor will there be a Palestinian state.
This is the Dome of the Rock I believe, or is it the whole Mt. Moriah area that they want? Someone please let me know.
How many of the folks polled in this push-poll (designed to imply Israelis want a P-state) were ARAB Israelis?
How about giving them Massachusetts. Its ruined anyway.
Israelis should be in charge of their own policies despite your opinions. It's their lives and they have a far better handle on the situation than you do, unless you live in Israel.
50 years of Zionist propaganda in the American media has sure worked on you!
Hey, do they have a quitclaim deed signed by G-d? I’d sure like to see that.
They also do not want to see Jerusalem divided again. It was almost as bad as Beirut during the period 1948-1967 when it was previously divided, with Arabs taking potshots at anyone that moved within their sights on the Jewish side of the border. There is nothing in recent experience to make anyone doubt that the same would occur again if Jerusalem was again divided.
A Palistinian state is such a no-brainer even Al Gore could have figured that out. Give them their own land and send them billions every year to make the land habitable and the problem will go away.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.