How Israelis See the Future


 

Publication Date: January 2008

Publisher: Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace

Author(s): Peter Berkowitz

Research Area: Government

Keywords: Israel; Middle East; Palestine

Type: Report

Coverage: Israel Palestine

Abstract:

According to opinion polls taken in 2008, roughly 70 percent of Israelis—and about 70 percent of Palestinians—believed that two states living side by side in peace is the just solution to the conflict between them. In January of 2008 Israeli leader Ehud Olmert delivered a major address which dramatized the remoteness of any resolution. In the address, Olmert acts and speaks from a position of political and personal weakness and has an approval rating that makes President Bush’s current approval ratings look sterling by comparison. As their country passes its sixtieth birthday, Israelis face a formidable array of security threats, and there is a consensus among Israelis that the conditions for implementing a just solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians do not exist and are not likely to come into being any time soon.