Poll: 85% agree to two-state solution

The Jerusalem Post (Link) - Hilary Leila Krieger (August 6, 2010)

A new poll finds that 85 percent of the Arab world would agree to a two-state solution with Israel and a plurality endorse a negotiated solution, though most doubt that such an outcome will happen.

Though 85% of those surveyed in six Arab countries said they were willing to support peace for a two-state solution in which Israel returned to the 1967 lines, including in Jerusalem, 55% thought Israel would not agree to give up the necessary territory, according to a poll by the Brookings Saban Center�s Shibley Telhami, which was conducted by the University of Maryland in conjunction with Zogby International. Only 14% said Arabs should continue to fight even if Israel returned to the 1967 borders.

In terms of creating such a state, 39% said it would be achieved through serious negotiations, with smaller numbers answering the US or UN would have to impose a solution and 16% saying through force. Of the issues most important to resolve, the majority (54%) gave the creation of a fully contiguous state in the West Bank and Gaza, with 31% choosing Arab sovereignty over east Jerusalem and 21% choosing resolving the refugee issue.

In another question, 54% of those polled said they didn�t believe there would ever be peace between Israelis and Palestinians, though 40% said it was possible if given more than five years to accomplish.

�Clearly the majority of the Arab public is prepared to accept in principle� a two-state solution, said Telhami, who noted the numbers are at peak levels.

He found even larger shifts of opinion on attitudes towards the United States and Iran.

While in 2009, 45% held favorable views of Obama, this summer that number was down to 20%, while those with negative views grew from 23% to 62%.

The numbers were almost exactly the same when it came to how hopeful they felt about Obama�s policy on the Mideast.

�The bulk of the shift in attitudes toward the Obama administration...is due to disappointment on this central issue,� Telhami said, referring to the Israeli- Palestinian issue, which was the issue pointed to most by those polled. �This is the prism through which the Arabs view the US.�

At the same time, attitudes towards Iran had shifted as well.

Though more of the Arab world than ever before (57%) believe that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program, 77% said Teheran had the right to do so with only 20% saying it should be pressured to stop, in contrast to a split of 53-40 last year.

�This is highly correlated to how they feel about the US,� Telhami assessed of various attitudes discerned in the poll toward Iran. �It�s mostly a reaction, a venting, an expression of anger [over] US foreign policy.�

The poll is conducted annually across six countries � Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Overall, 3,976 people were interviewed; the margin of error was +/- 1.6%. The surveys were conducted between June 29 and July 20.