A new poll by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs shows that the vast majority of Israelis are opposed to an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria. The poll, taken in November, showed that 76% of all Israelis (83% of Israeli Jews) do not believe that a withdrawal to the 1948 armistice lines will bring Israelis a secure peace.
The Palestinian Authority has repeatedly declared that it will not compromise on its demand that Israel withdraw from all land liberated in the 1967 Six Day War. In addition, the PA is demanding that Israel compensate it for its losses, and admit hundreds of thousands of Arabs to Israel, so they can return to homes their ancestors abandoned in the 1948 War of Liberation.
The poll was conducted by Dr, Mina Tzemach of the Dahaf Institute, one of Israel’s most respected polling organizations. The poll was conducted among a scientifically-determined representative group of 500 Israelis, and was conducted during the height of media discussion on the upgrading of the PA delegation by the UN General Assembly in November.
One of the questions asked participants whether they would change the vote if it became clear that the party they had planned to support would agree to an Israeli withdrawal from the Jordan Valley and surrender Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem. The large majority of all Israelis said they would – 53% if a party proposed leaving the Jordan Valley, 69% for Jerusalem. Among Israeli Jews, the figures were 59% and 79% respectively.
Perhaps most surprisingly, Israelis who said that they planned to vote for a left or left of center party are also largely against leaving Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley. Among those voters, 50% said that they would not vote for a party advocating withdrawal from the Jordan Valley, and 67% from Jerusalem.
The PA has also said that it would not accept any deal in which Israel did not fully withdraw from the Jordan Valley, and give the PA full sovereignty over the Old City of Jerusalem.
Participants were also asked if they trusted the PA, without Hamas, to observe any treaty it signs with Israel. Sixty seven percent of the general population and 75% of the Jewish population said they did not.
