Attitude Factors in the Search for Israeli-Palestinian Peace: A Comprehensive Review of Recent Polls

By Alvin Richman

Both the Israeli and Palestinian publics want to reach a peace agreement, but both sides deeply distrust the other and are pessimistic that negotiations will soon resolve their conflict. Negotiators on both sides also are constrained by extremists opposed to major Israeli-Palestinian compromises - Hamas which favors a posture of "resistance" to Israel, and the Israeli settler movement which opposes yielding territory or settlements to the Palestinians.

One of the most telling measures of the Israeli and Palestinian publics' mutual desire for an accord - besides both sides predominant support of the Middle East peace process - are their attitudes toward a U.S. mediating role. Both Israelis and Palestinians mainly favor a stronger U.S. role in the peace process, because the U.S. is seen as a key to reaching an agreement, even though each side perceives the U.S. as partial to the other. There is a growing consensus among Middle East observers that the United States will have to present Israeli and Palestinian negotiators with a two-state peace plan, including at least the basic parameters for resolving the most critical issues - borders/settlements, Jerusalem/Holy Sites, security arrangements and refugees/compensation.

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Big Government is Not the Issue

By Steven Kull

An abridged version of the following article appeared in Politico. It includes some newly released poll findings that can be viewed here.

Conventional wisdom is that the political pendulum has swung away from the Democrats--driven by a fierce reaction to a "Big Government" agenda. This spawned the tea party movement. But the story is not so simple.

Polls do show that the tea party is striking a chord with many Americans. In fact, 52 percent of Americans feel sympathy with the tea party movement, according to a new poll from WorldPublicOpinion.org.

But it does not appear that this sympathetic response is connected to the tea party's warning about Big Government. Only 31 percent of tea party sympathizers say their main concern is that government "is becoming too big." Rather, 55 percent say their greater concern is that the government "is not following the will of the people."

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