Pages

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Rasmussen Poll: 49% Americans Say Israel Should Stop Building Settlements only As Part of Peace Deal

(Rasmussen Reports).Israel’s insistence on building new settlements in disputed Palestinian territory has heightened tensions with the United States. Forty-nine percent (49%) of U.S. voters think Israel should be required to stop those settlements as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 22% of voters disagree and believe Israel should not be required to stop building those settlements. Another 29% are not sure.

Seventy-five percent (75%) agree, however, that the Palestinians should be required to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as part of a peace deal, Only six percent (6%) disagree with that. Twenty percent (20%) are undecided.

But 73% also think it is unlikely that there will be lasting peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis in the next decade, consistent with findings in previous surveys. This includes 19% who say it is not at all likely.

Fourteen percent (14%) say a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians is at least somewhat likely, with just two percent (2%) who believe it’s very likely.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of voters now say Israel is an ally of the United States, while two percent (2%) view the Jewish state as an enemy. For 32%, the country is somewhere in between the two.