Nearly Half U.S. Voters Polled Support Settlement Freeze
Almost half of all U.S. voters believe that Israel should be made to cease all settlement construction as part of a future peace deal with the Palestinians, a Rasmussen Reports poll said on Wednesday.
The American institute claimed that a recent poll showed 49% of voters approved of forcing Israel to stop settlement construction, with only 22% of voters disagreeing, saying Israel should not be required to stop building those settlements. Another 29% were not sure.
U.S.-Israel ties have been strained of late, as a result of Israel’s approval of 1,600 new East Jerusalem housing units during an official visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden last week. U.S. President Barack Obama, however, denied Wednesday the existence of a crisis in the ties between Washington and Jerusalem.
The Rasmussen Reports poll also showed that 75% of U.S. voters said that the Palestinians should be required to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as part of such an agreement, with only 6% disagreeing.
Seventy-three percent of voters, according to the poll, said they thought it was unlikely that there will be lasting peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis within the next decade, including 19% who say it is not at all likely.
According to the Rasmussen Reports website, last June, when Obama challenged Israel’s settlement policy last June, 48% of voters said the president’s Middle Eastern policy was about right, with 35% say he was not supportive enough of Israel.
In this week’s poll, however, 58% of voters responded that Israel was an ally of the United States, with 2% viewing Israel as an enemy. For 32%.
On Wednesday, Obama told Fox News that there was no crisis in ties with Israel, despite a high-profile diplomatic feud over the Netanyahu administration’s plans to build 1,600 homes in East Jerusalem.
“Israel is one of our closest allies, and we and the Israeli people have a special bond that’s not going to go away,” Obama said.
“But friends are going to disagree sometimes,” Obama said.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
