Israelis will vote for peace with Syria

An opinion poll issued on Friday in the Israeli daily Maariv said that 50% of Israelis will vote in favor of a peace agreement with Syria if a referendum is held in this regard against 37% who oppose and 13% who did not express any view.

Replying to a question on whether it will be possible to reach a peace agreement with Syria without at least giving great parts of the Golan, 69% said no while another 24% said this is an acceptable base.

The paper added that the opinion poll shows that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak may have greater backing than expected from the public opinion in order to conclude peace with Syria after the demonstration which was held by 150,000 persons on Monday night in Tel Aviv against any withdrawal from the Golan.

The opinion poll was organized by an independent institute on the day that Barak arrived from Washington after the end of the first round of resumed Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations in the US.

The poll covered 700 persons.

Two previous opinion poll had revealed that a majority of 53% of the Israelis in the first and 55% in the second oppose complete withdrawal from the Golan.

Israeli law calls for ratification of any withdrawal from the Golan to be made by major votes in the Knesset and in a public referendum.