Poll: Palestinians Wary of Trump, Majority Support Terrorism

Israelis may welcome president-elect Donald Trump’s stated intention to move the U.S. embassy to Yerushalayim, but Palestinians are notably less enthusiastic, according to a new poll quoted in The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

A narrow majority of Palestinians, 53 percent, want Trump to stay out of the peace process, according to findings published by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.

Thirty percent of Palestinian respondents said they do want Trump to take an active role in peacemaking, while 10 percent said he should have some role in it.

More surprising was the Palestinian verdict on outgoing President Barack Obama, who evidently failed to win their confidence, despite constant pressure on Israel to stop building in Yehudah and Shomron and years of personal tension with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

The poll found that 83 percent of Palestinians believe Obama did not make serious efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as compared to only 10 percent who say that he did.

Regarding the strategy for attaining a state, most Palestinians—74 percent—support international initiatives as a substitute for direct negotiations with Israel. However, 62 percent said they back peaceful, popular resistance, and 53 percent said they are in favor of an “armed intifada,” a euphemism for terror attacks.