Survey: Israelis Don’t Believe a Palestinian State Will Bring Peace

Israelis increasingly are skeptical of the “road map” peace plan and Palestinian statehood, according to a new poll.

Four out of five Israelis surveyed in early October by the Smith Research Institute said they don’t think the establishment of a Palestinian state will lead to real peace between Israel and the Arabs. More than 70 percent said the United States should be doing almost anything else but promoting the road map — a plan which, incidentally, 60 percent of Israelis say they don’t fully understand.

While more than half of respondents showed support for implementing the roadmap in some form, 39 percent said a Palestinian state would provide only a temporary solution to the conflict between the two peoples. Only a small minority — 15 percent — felt Palestinian statehood would bring true peace to Israel.

When asked what most Palestinian “nationalists” want, 55 percent said they care most about destroying Israel and its people, while 36 percent said the Palestinians are seeking genuine peace.

The poll of 500 people was conducted Oct. 2-7 and had a margin of error of 4.5 percent. It was conducted on behalf of The Jerusalem Summit, a conference of conservative and right-wing thinkers, politicians, activists and media, held Sunday-Tuesday in Jerusalem.

“The results of this survey confirm the principles that motivated us to organize the Jerusalem Summit,” said Dmitry Radyeshevsky, the summit director. “The summit took place to reject both the West’s moral equivalency and totalitarianism, such as Islamist extremism, and these goals are very much in line with the concerns of Israel’s people.”