A majority of voters who supported Likud Beytenu believe that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should launch a diplomatic initiative that would eventually yield a Palestinian state alongside Israel, according to a new poll commissioned by the Geneva Initiative.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addresses Likud supporters. – Photo: REUTER

The survey, which was done for the Geneva Initiative by New Wave Research, found that 53 percent of Israelis who cast their votes for the ruling party and a majority of the general public (58 percent) believe that the government should make a renewed push toward a settlement with the Palestinians in the wake of the seven-week military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The Geneva Initiative is a joint Israeli-Palestinian nongovernmental organization that advocates a two-state solution “based on previous official negotiations, international resolutions, the Quartet Roadmap, Clinton Parameters, Bush Vision, and Arab Peace Initiative.”

According to the survey, which sampled 600 people over the age of 18 and whose margin of error is 4 percent, two-thirds of the public believes that if a final-status agreement is not reached between Israel and the Palestinians in the coming years, it will lead to a violent confrontation in the region.

Among young Israelis between the ages of 18 and 24, 85 percent believe that violence is most likely to result from a diplomatic stalemate, while 11 percent say that the absence of an agreement will lead to one state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Eight percent said they thought the Palestinians would give up their demand for a state, while 15 percent said they did not know.

When asked whether the government invests too much resources in the settlements over the Green Line, 41 percent said they agreed, while 16 percent said that they disagreed. One-quarter of those polled said the government funding for the settlements was sufficient, and 16 percent said they did not know.

Two-thirds agreed with the statement that a lack of progress in the peace process was “bad for Israel,” while a little over one-fifth said that preserving the status quo was “good for Israel.”

The respondents were also asked about their opinions on the main parameters of the Geneva Initiative, which include a withdrawal to the ’67 lines with land swaps, Israeli settlement blocs which are to be annexed to Israel proper, a division of Jerusalem, renouncing sovereignty over Temple Mount, a limited entry of Palestinian refugees into Israel, and a demilitarized Palestinian state in the West Bank along with stringent security mechanisms.

A majority of those surveyed rejected all of the parameters. Nonetheless, 46 percent said they supported an agreement, while 33 percent were opposed. Twenty percent are undecided.

View original Jerusalem Post publication at: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Poll-Most-Likud-voters-want-Netanyahu-to-launch-diplomatic-drive-for-Palestinian-state-375869