TEL AVIV – Half of Israelis support annexing the Jordan Valley and parts of the West Bank, although that number drops again by half if the step would be taken without U.S. support, a new poll showed on Wednesday.
A quarter of Israelis polled by the Israel Democracy Institute think tank said they wanted the government to apply sovereignty to Jewish settlements in West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley without waiting for U.S. backing.
Around 30 percent were against the move and 20 percent said they did not know or else declined to answer.
Annexation could be brought to a vote in the Knesset as early as July 1.
President Donald Trump’s peace plan allows Israel to annex all Jewish settlements in the West Bank, amounting to 30 percent of region.
However, the U.S. has made it clear that unilateral annexation may endanger the peace plan and that a mapping committee needed to go through the process first.
Some 58 percent answered that the chances of a Palestinian reprisal, in the form of an Intifada, to annexation were high. Of those, 77 percent described themselves as left-wingers. Another 64 percent said they were centrists and 55 percent said they were right-wing.
Twenty-eight said the chances of an Intifada were low and the remaining 14 percent said they didn’t know.
Over half of the 771 respondents (52.4 percent) said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would fulfill his role as premier adequately despite his ongoing criminal trial, while 41 percent said they did not believe he was capable of running the country while fighting for his own defense.
A total of 34 percentof those polls said the new government should focus on economic issues and unemployment, while only 12 percent said health and the coronavirus were the most pressing issues right now. Just over 11 percent said security and foreign affairs should be prioritized, and welfare, equality and social justice received 11 percent apiece.