New York – The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) commissioned a poll of 500 adult Israelis by the respected Israeli pollster Smith Research and Consulting on November 30, 2005.
- The results showed that by a margin of 67% to 28% Israelis oppose “carrying out unilateral withdrawals from Judea and Samaria if after the elections it becomes clear that it’s not possible to make progress in the negotiations with the Palestinians on the basis of the Road Map.”
- By a margin of 54% to 37%, opposition to future unilateral withdrawals exist even among these who plan to vote for Ariel Sharon’s Kadimah party.
- Among those Israelis who oppose unilateral withdrawals, a vast majority, 75% to 18% state that this issue is so important they would not vote for a party that would support such a position.
MK Chaim Ramon, a new member of Sharon’s Kadimah party, revealed in a live interview on Israel Channel 10’s news program “London and Kirschenbaum” that Sharon will unilaterally withdraw to final borders in the West Bank. Ramon explained that Sharon will not tell the public this before the elections because he wants to give the Road Map a chance before unilaterally withdrawing to the final borders. Sharon has dodged direct questions about this issue.
ZOA President Morton A. Klein said, “The ZOA commissioned this poll to determine how serious the opposition is to further Gaza-like unilateral withdrawals from Jewish land. We were surprised to see that by a margin of 2 1/2 to 1, the Israelis want no more Gaza-like concessions and that a majority of Israelis believe this one issue is so important that they won’t vote for a party that supports unilateralism. This means that Sharon’s Kadimah party may be in trouble if Likud and others emphasize unilateral withdrawal as a major issue during the upcoming election campaign.
“Apparently, the Israeli public is aware that the Gaza withdrawal only brought more weapons, terrorists, and terrorist training camps into Gaza, not to mention the increased number of Kassam missiles attacks emanating from Gaza into Israel. Last week Defense Minister Mofaz, Chairman of the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, Yuval Steinitz, and Israeli Gaza region General Kochavi have publicly expressed their alarm at post-Gaza withdrawal developments.
“It continues to become more and more evident that the Palestinian Arab’s goal is Israel’s destruction and not simply more Israeli concessions. In fact, one of the PLO parties running in January’s Palestinian Authority election have adopted the banner, ‘Destroy the Zionist Enterprise.’ Additional evidence of the true Palestinian Authority’s goal is the fact that Mahmoud Abbas, their chief, refers to Israel as the ‘Zionist enemy’ and continues to push massive Palestinian Arab immigration into Israel which would destroy the Jewish State.”