Poll: 58% of Israeli Jews back two-state solution

Some 58% of Israel's Jewish public backs the "two states for two peoples" solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a Smith Institute poll commissioned by Ynet revealed. The results are based on a representative sample of 500 respondents from the adult Israeli population. According to the poll, which was conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's scheduled trip to Washington, 37% of Israeli Jews are opposed to the two-state solution, while five percent of those surveyed had no opinion on the matter. US President Barack Obama has expressed his support for the two-state plan on a number of occasions since entering office in January. The poll further revealed that 70% of Israel's religious population, including the ultra-Orthodox, is opposed to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, while 73% of the country's secular Jews support it. Additionally, some 53% of Israeli Jews up to the age of 30 are against the two-state solution, while 46% of them are in favor of it; 63% of Israeli Jews over the age of 50 also support the establishment of a Palestinian state, while only 32% oppose the US-backed solution. Among the respondents who defined their political affiliation as leftist or center-left, some 84% support the two-state solution, while only 14% are against it. Some 63% of respondents who consider themselves rightist - or centrist and leaning towards the right - also back the plan; about a third of those who consider themselves purely right-wing also support it, the poll found, while 62% of right-wing Israeli Jews are against an independent Palestinian state. More specifically, the survey showed that 42% of the supporters of the ruling Likud party are in favor of the two-state plan, while 52% of them are against it. Among Labor's supporters, 82% back the initiative and 13% are against it. The vast majority of Israeli Jews who voted for the religious parties Shas, National Union and United Torah Judaism also oppose the two-state plan. As expected, support for the two-state principle was significantly higher among Israel's Arab population. The poll had a 4.5% margin of error.