Israelis Wary Of West Bank Withdrawal In New Poll

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By Daniel J. Solomon March 28, 2017

A new survey shows that over the past decade support for Israel leaving the West Bank as part of a potential peace deal with the Palestinians has fallen precipitously over the past decade.

According to the poll, conducted by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, only 36% of Israelis would now back withdrawal from the entire West Bank and Jewish settlements there as part of a negotiated accord. That compares to the 60% support that such a proposition had in 2005.

The survey registered a similar drop in backing for the “Clinton parameters,” former President Bill Clinton’s proposal for a Palestinian state, in which Palestinians would have a capital in east Jerusalem, control the Temple Mount and maintain their own security force on the West Bank. Israel would keep its settlement blocs under that plan. Enjoying 55% backing in 2005, that number has today sunk to 29%.

Dore Gold, Israel’s former ambassador to the United States, wrote the result showed “the Israeli public implicitly understands that the Middle East remains a very dangerous and chaotic region.”

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

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