Thaindian News

Jerusalem, Dec 29 (IANS) A growing number of Israelis and Palestinians are inclined to accept compromises that would enable their governments to reach a peace agreement, a survey has said.

The poll indicates that 58 percent of Israelis and 50 percent of Palestinians support a final-status peace settlement along parameters outlined by former US president Bill Clinton in December 2000. Thirty-nine percent and 49 percent, respectively, oppose such a settlement.

The study was jointly conducted by the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University and the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah, Xinhua reported.

The Clinton parameters, which were followed by the Geneva Initiative in 2003, address the core issues that underlie the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The final borders of a future Palestinian state and mutual land swaps; refugees; security arrangements; the status of Jerusalem; a demilitarized Palestinian state; and an end to Palestinian claims.

In a similar poll conducted in December last year, 52 percent of Israeli and 40 percent of Palestinian respondents voiced support for Clinton’s so-called “permanent status package.”

On the issue of the final borders of a future Palestinian state, for instance, 63 percent of Palestinian respondents in the latest survey supported an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip with miniscule land swaps.

While 51 percent of Israeli respondents were in favour of establishing a Palestinian state in the entirety of these areas except for several large settlement blocs in three percent of the West Bank which will be annexed to Israel.

Despite the willingness to compromise, the poll found that two-thirds of respondents on both sides do not believe it is possible to reach a final-status settlement in the current political climate, and view the chances for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the near future as slim.

The survey also examined attitudes regarding a potential Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, with 47 percent of Israel’s Jewish public saying they would support an attack and 41 percent opposed to it.

An overwhelming majority of Israeli respondents - 76 percent - believe that if Israel were to attack Iran, Palestinian militants in Gaza would retaliate with rocket barrages against Israel, while 48 percent of Palestinian respondents thought that Israel will eventually carry out a strike.

The survey’s results are based on telephone interviews with 605 Israeli Jewish adults and face-to-face interviews with 1,270 Palestinian adults in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem from Dec 11 to 17.