The Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research at Tel Aviv University recently released its War and Peace Index for June 2009. Among the key findings:
61% of the Israeli Jewish public support the current government’s policy of expanding settlements according to natural growth while 31% oppose it. However, that broad support narrows when the issue of worsening US-Israel relations is mentioned. If US relations worsen as result of the settlement policy, only 40% support Netanyahu while 48% oppose it.
A clear majority of Jewish Israelis continue to recognize the Palestinians as a people at 62% while 32% oppose it. Among those who recognize the Palestinians as a people, an overwhelming majority, at 80.5%, also support the right of the Palestinian people to an independent state. So looking at the total Jewish sector, only a small majoirty, at 50%, say the Palestinians deserve a state of their own.
The pollsters note that the smallness of the majority mentioned above may be explained by the fact that the majority of the Jewish public (71%) believe that most Palestinians do not recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people.
For more key findings, click here to read the entire War and Peace Index »
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