Poll: Israelis, Palestinians Expect Future of Violence

Most Israelis and Palestinians think November’s U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace conference was a failure, according to a recent poll. They also feel that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s goal to achieve peace by the end of next year is far-fetched.

Nearly three out of four Israelis said Annapolis was a failure, and 59 percent of Palestinians agreed. Of the 2008 peace settlement, only 8 percent of Israelis agreed it was possible, along with 23 percent of Palestinians.

Just over half of Israeli respondents believed the violence would not stop (55 percent), and 32 percent of Palestinians thought the same way.

When asked if they would support resettling Palestinians in a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, more land exchanges and splitting sovereignty of Jerusalem, 53 percent of Israelis said yes, down from 64 percent two years ago.

The poll was conducted by Hebrew University and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research and reported by the Associated Press.

Since its inception in 1990, the Trumpet has watched Jerusalem closely. Its forerunner, the Plain Truth, forecasted Jerusalem’s future for decades. To understand whether Israeli and Palestinian pessimism is justified, and for much more on the future of the “peace” process in Jerusalem, read Jerusalem in Prophecy.