With only 40% support, Israelis still think 2 states best option - poll
Only 40% of Israelis support a two-state resolution to the conflict with the Palestinians, even though it remains the most popular choice, according to a poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute.Saudi FM praises Abraham Accords, puts Palestinian statehood first
Past IDI polls on this question have shown that Israeli support for two states has fluctuated widely over the past 28 years since the signing of the 1993 Oslo I Accord in Washington.
Past polls on this topic by IDI show that support for a two-state resolution peaked at 70% in 2007 during the Annapolis peace process brokered by former president George W. Bush between former prime minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
It was at its lowest point in 1995 with only 36.9% support, based on IDI data.
From July 27 to 29, the IDI polled 750 Israelis over the age of 18 by phone and over the Internet, including 151 Arabic-speakers. The margin of error is 3.59% for the poll on a wide array of topics, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Participants were asked if they would back a “two-state solution with the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”
Israeli-Arabs were much more likely to support a two-state resolution than their Jewish peers.
The Abraham Accords have been good for the Middle East but its momentum should be used to help the Palestinians achieve statehood, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said at a virtual conference of the Aspen Security Forum on Tuesday.
“We think, overall, the Abrahamic Accords have worked positively to spur engagement in the region, so in that sense, the decision by those countries can be viewed positively,” he said.
The Saudi Foreign Minister added that the best way to build on the normalizations between Israel and Arab states in the past year would be “to find a path to solving the issue of the Palestinians and finding a path to a Palestinian state because that will deliver complete normalization for Israel in the region.”
Peace, he said, “is a strategic choice of the Arabs” that must be used to reach a comprehensive solution for the Palestinians.
Asked if that’s a precondition for Saudi-Israel normalization, in light of the divisions among Palestinian factions making Israel-Palestinian peace unlikely in the short term, Prince Faisal did not address the first part of the question.
Rather, he said that the PLO and Palestinian Authority are the legal representatives of the Palestinians.
“That engagement is the key engagement in order to progress towards a peaceful solution,” he stated. “I think without solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in a sustainable, long-term way not, we’re not going to have real, sustainable security in the region. We need to try everything we can to make that happen.”
Prince Faisal pointed to the new government in Israel, saying “perhaps it can deliver some progress. Let’s wait and see.”
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister also said that he sees an emboldened Iran acting in a negative manner around the Middle East, endangering shipping, arming Yemen's Houthis and contributing to political deadlock in Lebanon.
Here's @PressSec on same topic: "Aside from putting forward a peace proposal that was dead on arrival, we don’t think [Trump admin] did anything constructive, really, to bring an end to the longstanding conflict in the Middle East."
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) August 3, 2021
But what would the Saudi FM know about that? https://t.co/intNP1c6xn
The only Jewish village in Jordan
In the Israeli War of Independence in 1948, Jews were expelled from East Jerusalem and Gush Etzion in the West Bank. Not well known is that a few Jews were also expelled from the east bank of the Jordan. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, Tel Or was the only Jewish village, built to house the employees of a power station.
During the Israeli War of Independence in 1948, Tel Or was the only Jewish village in Transjordan at the time. Tel Or was designated for residence of the permanent employees of the power plant and their families, aiming to create an agricultural village at the Eastern border of the Land of Israel. Employees of the power station also farmed thousands of dunams of land and sold some of the produce at a company workers’ supermarket in Haifa. Due to its relative isolation and despite the limited number of resident families, the village included a clinic, a kindergarten and even a school, established by Yosef Hanani for the children of employees.
An Iraqi brigade invaded at Naharayim area on May 15, 1948, in an unsuccessful attempt to take the Gesher kibbutz and fort. The power plant was occupied and looted by the Iraqi forces. After the Tel Or village and the power plant were overran by the Arab forces they were destroyed. To prevent Iraqi tanks from attacking Jewish villages in the Jordan Valley, the sluice gates of the Degania dam were opened. The rush of water, which deepened the river at this spot, was instrumental in blocking the Iraqi-Jordanian incursion.
Today the power plant and the destroyed village of Tel Or are located on the Jordanian side of the Israel-Jordan border. The remains of the power station are part of the Jordan River Peace Park on the Island of Peace on the Israel-Jordan border.
After the expulsion of the residents of Tel Or, combined with the expulsion of the Jewish residents of the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem, an Arab commander remarked,
“For the first time in 1,000 years not a single Jew remains in the Jewish Quarter. Not a single building remains intact. This makes the Jews’ return here impossible.”