Israelis have no belief in possibility of PA peace

Nearly three quarters of Israelis think it will not be possible to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority even if stalled peace talks resume, a poll published on Friday said, according to AFP.

When asked: "If negotiations begin again do you believe that it will be possible to reach a final agreement with the Palestinians?", 71.6 percent of those interviewed answered "no", compared to 21.7 percent of those who thought it was possible.

The remainder had no opinion on the matter.

The poll, which appeared in the Yisrael Hayom daily newspaper, interviewed 500 Israeli Jews.

Israelis interviewed for the poll were a little more optimistic about the chances of restarting talks with the Palestinian Authority following efforts from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Kerry has visited the region five times since taking office in February in a bid to relaunch talks between the two sides. According to the poll, 50.9 percent of Israelis believed that talks would begin again compared with 30 percent who thought the opposite, with the remaining 19.1 percent not having any strong opinion on the matter.

A poll published by the same newspaper last week found that 57 percent of Israelis supported Kerry’s efforts and would like to see the talks revived, while 28.6% opposed the talks. Last week’s poll found that 69.3% of the respondents, most of whom presumably supported resumption of talks, opposed offering the PA any goodwill gestures such as the release of prisoners, easing of travel restrictions and the like. Only 19.5% of respondents were in favor of such gestures.