WASHINGTON (BP) — Israelis are increasingly skeptical that Israel and Palestine can peacefully coexist as envisioned since the Oslo Accords in 1993, Pew Research found.
Among Israelis of all stripes, confidence of a two-state solution to conflict there has dropped by 15 percentage points in the past 10 years, Pew Research Center said Sept. 26, based on its Global Attitudes Survey conducted in March and April.
While half of Israelis thought so in 2013, only 35 percent expressed confidence in 2023, Pew said.
Arab Israelis are more skeptical than Jewish Israelis of a two-state coexistence. Among Arabs, confidence has dropped 33 percentage points, from 74 to 41 percent. Among Jewish Israelis, the belief has dropped from 46 percent to 32 percent, Pew said. People in the West Bank, in Gaza and East Jerusalem were excluded from the study.
Among secular Jews, known as Hiloni, optimism of a two-state solution has increased, rising from 54 percent to 61 percent, Pew said.
The Jewish people claim Israel as their inherited Holy Land, as recorded in Scripture, although the current borders differ from the land described in Scripture, according to commentary at free.messianicbible.com.
The United States was the first nation to recognize Israel as a state in 1948, and under the Biden Administration continues to advocate a two-state solution to conflict. But when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the Middle East in January, some officials from the U.S. and the Middle East voiced little hope for such peace, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“The United States is committed to working toward our enduring goal of ensuring that the Palestinians and Israelis enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, opportunity, justice and dignity,” Blinken said. “The only way to achieve that goal is through preserving and then realizing the vision of two states for two peoples.”
Pew conducted its study through in-person interviews with 1,001 adults March 13-April 24 in Israel through Pew’s Global Attitudes Survey methods, with a 4.2 margin of error.
Among Pew’s findings:
- Among Ultra-Orthodox and religious Jews – Haredim and Datiim – confidence of a two-state solution has dropped from 22 percent to 7 percent, with Pew combining the two groups because of a small sample size.
- Among traditional or Masorti Jews, percentages have dropped from 33 to 17.
More details of the study are available here.
(EDITOR’S NOTE – Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.)
