Survey Results: Most Israelis Have Little Hope for Trump's Peace Plan

A public survey whose results were published on Monday, July 2, shows that most Israelis have little hope for the success of the peace plan that Donald Trump's administration is expected to announce soon. The results of this survey, conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University, indicate that nearly three-quarters of respondents believe this peace plan has very low or some chance of success. Respondents were not asked to explain their reasons. This skepticism comes despite both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the majority of Israelis holding a positive view of Donald Trump. The survey reveals that 77% of respondents believe that Israel's interests are important to Trump, while over 60% believe that Palestinian interests are not important to him. Shortly after taking office, Trump sent a team responsible for Middle Eastern issues to the region with the aim of advancing what he described as the 'ultimate deal' between Israel and the Palestinians. The U.S. government has announced that it will soon present its peace plan. Any peace initiative will face significant obstacles, including the dire living conditions of people in the Gaza Strip, internal Palestinian divisions, and recent armed conflicts between Hamas and the Israeli army. Repeated efforts to establish peace between Israel and the Palestinians last failed in 2014. Given that Palestinians have accused Trump of bias towards Israel, 'hope for peace on both sides is diminishing.' The new survey results in Israel show that more than half of respondents support peace negotiations with the Palestinians, but less than 20% believe such negotiations will lead to peace in the coming years. Since May, when Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the U.S. embassy there, Palestinians have severed their ties with the U.S. government. They will be skeptical of any plan presented by the U.S. government due to Washington's perceived unfair bias towards Israel. It is unclear how the U.S. government will be able to advance a peace plan without Palestinian cooperation. Palestinians seek to regain control of areas such as the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem that Israel occupied in the 1967 war. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but two years later, Hamas took control from the West-backed Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas, now governs only in small autonomous areas in the West Bank. Israelis, particularly Netanyahu, view the current U.S. president as their champion. Trump's administration has consistently supported Israel at the United Nations, exited the nuclear deal with Iran, and, unlike all previous presidents who promised but never acted, moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In this survey, which has a margin of error of about 4.1%, 600 Jews and Arabs participated.