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Peace Process

Israelis oppose Olmert withdrawal plan

Most feel government not giving them enough details


By Ryan Jones
July 16, 2006

A majority of Israelis oppose Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to unilaterally evacuate all Jews from most of Judea and Samaria, and feel the government is withholding information about the ramifications of such a move.

According to a telephone poll conducted last week by the Maagar Mohot Survey Institute, 52 percent of Israelis (including Israeli Arabs) are against a withdrawal from the nation's biblical heartland.

Olmert maintains that most of his countrymen back what he insists is a painful but necessary move aimed at preserving Israel's Jewish majority.

Olmert says his Kadima Party's electoral win constitutes a clear mandate to implement the plan, though less than 25 percent of Israel's voting public cast a ballot for Kadima. Many didn't bother to vote at all.

But in the recent telephone survey, only 19 percent of respondents said they back what is now being called "realignment."

A full 71 percent said the government is providing enough information about the plan, including the increased dangers it could present to Israel's densely populated central regions.

Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last summer is widely credited for Hamas' landslide electoral victory and the escalating rocket war against the Jews of the Negev region.

Recent reports indicate the Olmert government is playing down recent rocket attacks from Samaria in order to prevent greater opposition to realignment.

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