Poll: 50% of Israelis see Annapolis as failure.

Israeli radicals set on derailing revived peace push amid low public sentiments for peace.

TEL AVIV – Fifty percent of Israelis said that the US-sponsored Annapolis conference was a failure, 18 percent thought is was a success and 32 percent did not know, according to a poll published Thursday.

The vast majority of Israelis do not believe that Israel and the Palestinians will strike a final peace deal by the end of 2008 as said during the US conference.

When asked whether they thought that a comprehensive agreement will be signed with the Palestinians by the end of next year, 83 percent said no, compared with 16 percent who thought otherwise, said the survey published in the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot.

In a joint statement that opened the international conference in the US city of Annapolis on Tuesday, Israelis and Palestinians agreed to relaunch final status talks with the aim of striking a comprehensive deal by the end of 2008.
On the question of Syria, 62 percent said Israel should engage in talks with its foe, while 35 percent opposed.

But 69 percent said they opposed Israel giving up the Golan Heights plateau -- captured from Syria in 1967 and demanded back by Damascus in any peace deal -- in return for full peace, with only 28 percent supporting the move.

On who Israelis think is best suited to be prime minister, the results nearly mirrored those of a survey from a month ago.

Right-wing opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud Party led the field with 34 percent, followed by Defence Minister Ehud Barak with 17 percent and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with 14 percent.

The survey was conducted by the Dahaf Polling Institute, questioning 503 people, and had a 4.5-percent margin of error.

In another poll published in the liberal Haaretz daily, 42 percent of respondents said that the Annapolis summit was a failure, compared with 17 percent who disagreed, and the rest undecided.

Fifty-three percent said they favoured a permanent resolution of the conflict through the fixing of the status of Jerusalem, delineating the border and determining the future of Palestinian refugees.

Thirty-eight percent said they were opposed to any compromise on these thorny questions and preferred the status quo.

Also, 22 percent of those surveyed said they were satisfied with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, compared with only seven percent a few weeks ago.

The survey was conducted by the Tel-Aviv University and covered 495 adults.
Israeli radicals set on derailing revived peace push
Israeli leaders are heading home to radicals determined to derail the process, commentators said Thursday.

Peace efforts -- coming 60 years after the United Nations voted to divide Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state on November 29, 1947 -- face enormous obstacles.

In Israel, illegal settler advocates and far-right groups are sounding their bugle calls.

"We will battle against Olmert's criminal plans," David Wilder -- a spokesman for the illegal settlers who fear Olmert will move them from the occupied West Bank -- said this week. "Greater Israel belongs solely to the Jewish people."
Olmert -- his ratings low and facing myriad corruption allegations -- is presiding over a coalition in which at least two members have vowed to bolt if he makes concessions to the Palestinians on core issues.

Israeli right-wing groups greeted Annapolis with doomsday warnings and have begun to put pressure on Olmert's coalition partners.

"Complete Israeli Collapse," wailed a headline in a far-right daily this week.
On the streets of Jerusalem, fliers have appeared alleging that Olmert's coalition partners, the ultra-Orthodox Shas and ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu, are in favour of sharing sovereignty over the Holy City -- a major taboo for the extremist right-wing camp.

Both have threatened to quit the cabinet -- thereby depriving Olmert of a majority in the 120-seat Knesset -- if the premier makes concessions on the issues of occupied Jerusalem and illegal settlements.

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