Nearly half of Israeli Jews believe that the publication of the United States' so-called deal of the century on the Middle East settlement constitutes US interference in the Israeli election slated for 2 March, a fresh poll revealed.
According to the poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute, 68 percent of Israeli Arabs see the publication of the peace plan as interference in the Israeli electoral process.
"...among the Jews slightly less than half (46%) view it that way. A segmentation of the Jewish sample by self-placement on the right-centre-left spectrum reveals a majority who perceive external interference on the left and in the centre (78% and 69%), compared to a minority holding that view among those defining themselves as right-wing (33.5%)", the survey revealed.
As much as 45.5 percent of Jewish respondents believe that Israel should agree on the recognition of a Palestinian state in accordance with Trump's plan, and only 44 percent of the Arabs think this way.
The reason for such a low support for Palestine's recognition among the Arabs "is apparently the mention of President Trump in the body of the question, given the widespread perception that the U.S. president is not a fair arbitrator on the issue of the conflict but instead is biased toward the Israeli side", the poll said.
Under the peace plan, unveiled by US President Donald Trump on 28 January, Israel would annex settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley and have Jerusalem as its "undivided capital." A demilitarised Palestinian state, in turn, is offered the adjacent village of Abu Dis as its capital and $50 billion in investment to "spur the Palestinian economy." The right of return of Palestinian refugees to their ancestral land remains off the table. The peace plan has predictably triggered a strong backlash from Palestine, which insists on restoring its pre-1967 borders and having East Jerusalem, not adjacent villages, as its capital.
