Peace Index: Most Israelis Favour Peace Talks – But Only a Third Think Talks Will Succeed

Join our Mailing List

Posted on: July 21, 2010

In July, The Peace Index, a joint venture of The Evens Mediation and Conflict Resolution Center at Tel Aviv University and The Israel Democracy Institute, looked at Israelis' positions on peace talks, captive soldier Gilad Schalit, U.S. President Barack Obama and other current issues. Among the findings:

While 71.5% of the Israeli Jewish public supports holding talks with the Palestinians, only 32.3% believe they will lead to peace. This wide gap between high support for talks and low belief in their outcomes has characterized public opinion on this issue consistently since the signing of the Oslo agreement in 1993.
The prevailing view is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy regarding talks with the Palestinians is balanced (42.5%), with the rest divided between those who see it as too yielding (29%) or too tough (17%).
As in the past, a considerable majority (57.5%) thinks President Obama leans too much to the Palestinian side. Twenty-eight percent see him as neutral, while only 8% say he leans more to the Israeli side.
About one-fifth (21%) of the Jewish interviewees said they had participated or intended to participate in protest activities for the freeing of Gilad Shalit – an unprecedented rate in Israel, and perhaps in the world, for public participation in civil protest. At the same time, the public is divided on whether the Shalit family should intensify its protest measures: 48.5% favor such an intensification and 43% oppose it.