According to two recent polls conducted amongst the Charedi populace of Israel, there is a high level of support for annexing the Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria to become part of Israel.
One poll was conducted for the Israel Democracy Institute in June and found that 84% of the ultra-Orthodox public backs annexation. Some 42 percent of those who fell into that category, said that they would only back annexation if the United States supports the measure as well.
The Samaria Regional Council asked the Maagar Mochot polling group to conduct a poll as well from the Charedi community. Among those asked, 72% of those who voted for Shas were in favor of annexation while some 62% of United Torah Judaism (UTJ) voters supported the move.
The ultra-Orthodox community has historically not been interested in the settlements or the religious-right’s goal of a Greater Israel, while some of its leading rabbis have supported territorial compromises if it would lead to a peace agreement that would save lives. Among them are such gedolim as Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and Rabbi Elazar Menachem Shach.
Dr. Gilad Malach of the Israel Democracy Institute said, ״From an ultra-Orthodox perspective, the presence of Jews in Israel is religiously mandated and we have a superior claim than others because of that… Issues pertaining to the democratic and civil rights of Palestinians do not play a large role in the position of the ultra-Orthodox community regarding the conflict”, he added.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
3 Responses
Something doesn’t add up here.
It makes no sense that there would be so much support for annexation in the Chreidi world (an astounding 84%!) when (1)as the article correctly note gedolim like Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and Rabbi Shach strongly opposed the Greater Israel ideology .(2)there are no Chareide leaders alive today who are actively promoting annexation.
Help!!
This is AGAINST the wishes of the Lubavitcher Rebbe!! Yitzchak Rabin, as well as many other political authorities have admitted that, had they listened to the Rebbe, they could’ve prevented so much aggravation.
It’s bad enough that we have Gaza; now the West bank is also gonna turn into a terrorist underground?! What foolishness has Klal Yisroel gotten into?!
When we don’t learn from the past, history does intend to repeat itself Ch”v…..
This sounds rather odd. I wonder if this poll is reliable.