66 Percent of Jews: Our Sovereignty in Jerusalem is Indisputable

Israel National News (Link) (August 9, 2009)

66 percent of Israeli Jews believe that Jerusalem in its entirety is Israel�s capital and that Israel�s right to build anywhere within the city is undisputable.

27 percent of those polled opposed this position and the rest did not know.

The War and Peace Index poll found that 53 percent of the Jewish public judged the government�s foreign policy favorably, while 33 percent viewed it negatively. A majority among the voters for all parties except Labor and Meretz hold this view.

In Obama we trust?

The researchers from the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research estimated that Israelis� support for the government was influenced by the perception that the U.S. administration under Barack Obama is not objective in the Middle East dispute but rather pro-�Palestinian�.

However, there is more trust in Obama now than there was two months ago, immediately after he gave his speech �to the Muslim world� in Cairo. Forty-six percent of Israeli Jews believe that Obama is biased in favor of the �Palestinian� side, down from 55 percent in June.

Thirty-one percent say he is neutral, down from 34 percent in June, and seven percent say he is pro-Israel, a number that is unchanged since the previous poll.

When asked if Obama can be trusted to take Israeli interests into account and to safeguard them in his diplomatic efforts, 38 percent said yes and 60 percent said no. In June, only 26 percent trusted Obama and 68 percent did not.

Support for Cast Lead

71 percent of the Jewish public credited Operation Cast Lead in Gaza with the current relative quiet in Israel�s south, and 79 percent viewed the operation�s execution as �pretty good� or �very good.�

Asked about the testimony by �Breaking the Silence� about supposed atrocities committed in Operation Cast Lead, 76 percent said there was no need to reopen investigations of the allegations. However, 43 percent said that they believe the allegations while 47 percent said they do not. This is a major shift from March, when 20 percent said that they believed the allegations of misconduct and 60 percent did not.

The poll surveyed 512 people by telephone and has a margin of error of 4.5 percent.