Is the Two-State Solution Still Relevant?
The monthly Peace Index of the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University, published today (Wednesday), finds that: As the Jewish Year comes to an end 64% of Jewish-Israelis think that it was a good year for Israel and 85% look forward to spending holiday meals with family. In the coming year, the public wants the government to focus on closing socioeconomic gaps (22%), improving the economy (18%) and reducing governmental corruption (16%). As for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the majority of the Israeli public thinks that Palestinians deserve an independent state, yet 56% believe that if a peace agreement were to be signed on the basis of the two-state solution, it would be impossible to implement.
Main Findings
An independent Palestinian state: Half of the Jewish Israeli public thinks that Palestinians deserve an independent state, while (43%) think they do not. Analysis of the Jewish sample by age shows that support for a Palestinian state increases with age: among those aged 18-34 only a minority (35%) supports the Palestinians’ right to a state, 54% of those aged 35-54 support it, and in the oldest age group a 61% majority supports it. Arab-Israelis believe unanimously (94%) that Palestinians are entitled in principle to an independent state of their own.
Two-state solution: At present, 47% of Jewish-Israelis support signing an agreement based on this formula while 46% answered that they do not. Among Arab-Israelis, 73% support such an agreement. Nevertheless, the majority of Jewish and Arab Israelis (56%) think that such a peace agreement would be impossible to implement.
The Nation-State of the Jewish people: 83% of Jewish-Israelis thinks that “the Palestinians must recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people before peace talks with them can be revived.” 72% of Arab-Israelis oppose this demand.
What do Palestinians really want? 66% of Jewish-Israelis agree that “most of the Palestinians have not come to terms with Israel’s existence and would destroy it if they could.” This rate has remained more or less constant, with slight fluctuations, since the first Peace Index survey was conducted in June 1994. Among the Arab Israelis 57.5% also agree with this claim.
The Hamas: The majority of the Israeli public favor negotiations with Hamas, however 78% of Jewish-Israelis think that Israel should not forgo the return of the soldiers’ bodies (held by the Hamas) even in return for cease-fire in the south.
As the Jewish New Year approaches: 64% of Jewish-Israelis think that it was a good year for Israel, and 85% look forward to spending holiday meals with family. In the coming year, the public wants the government to focus on closing socioeconomic gaps (22%), improving the economic situation (18%) and reducing corruption (16%). Arab-Israelis have a different view of what the government’s focus for the New Year should be: in first place comes the goal of reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians (22%) and just beneath it is improving the economic situation (19%).
The survey conducted on August 28-29, 2018, included 600 respondents, who constitute a representative national sample of the adult population of Israel aged 18 and over. The maximum measurement error for the entire sample is ±4.1% at a confidence level of 95%. http://www.peaceindex.org/defaultEng.aspx