A new Israeli poll has shown that 64.9% of Israelis – nearly two-thirds – are opposed to further withdrawals in Judea and Samaria, while only 23.9% said they were in favor. The poll, conducted by Motagim and commissioned by the SOS Israel Organization, shows that far fewer Israelis support withdrawals than did at the time of 2005 unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. Moreover, opposition to withdrawal is the majority position of all three sectors of Israeli Jews – 95% of haredim, 90.9 % of other religious Jews, and 57% of non-religious Jews (‘Israelis opposed to further withdrawals,’ Jerusalem Post, March 19, 2008).

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “As the clear failure and bloodshed produced by the Gaza withdrawal becomes impossible to ignore, more and more Israelis have rejected the idea of handing over more territory to Mahmoud Abbas’ terror-supporting Palestinian Authority, whether unilaterally or as part of a negotiation process.  This confirms several earlier polls, including the July 2006 Maagar Mohot Survey Institute poll which found 52% of Israelis opposing the Olmert government’s plan to carry out further withdrawals in Judea and Samaria; or the October 2007 Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research and the Evens Program in Mediation and Conflict Resolution of Tel Aviv University poll which showed that a clear majority of Jewish Israelis — 59% to 33% — opposed, even in return for a peace agreement, Israel handing over to the PA various Arab neighborhoods in the eastern half of Jerusalem. Clearly, the Israeli public is becoming more firmly convinced that even negotiated concessions to an unreconstructed PA are pointless and wrong when such negotiations are under present conditions incapable of leading to a genuine peace agreement.”