By Xinhua,
Jerusalem : Sixty percent of the Israeli Jewish public support the prisoner swap deal Israel signed with the Lebanese movement Hezbollah in an effort to bring back kidnapped Israeli soldiers, even though it means releasing all the Lebanese prisoners Israel holds, a poll revealed Sunday.
The War and Peace Index, conducted by the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research and compiled of a monthly telephone survey of 600 Jewish citizens from various sectors of the Israeli society, also showed that 32 percent of those polled opposed the prisoner swap deal.
The data, according to the Steinmetz Center, is vastly different than that of June, when 46 percent of those polled opposed the deal and only 38 percent favored it.
Israeli cabinet last Sunday approved the prisoner swap deal with Hezbollah, which intends to bring back two kidnapped Israeli soldiers who Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said were already dead.
A majority of the ministers voted in favor of the deal at the end of a cabinet meeting, after Olmert urged the cabinet to greenlight the proposal to exchange Lebanese prisoners with Israeli reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, who were taken away by Hezbollah militants two years ago in an cross-border attack which sparked a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The War and Peace Index also revealed the Israeli Jewish public’ s views on the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip, which entails the release of numerous Palestinian prisoners in return for another Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped by Palestinian militants from Gaza in June 2006 and is believed to be alive.
A large majority of 70 percent of the pollees said they support the deal and 20 percent oppose it.
On the Egyptian-mediated truce between Israel and Palestinian militant groups led by Hamas, which went into effect on June 19, public opinions were split: some 45 percent said the agreement was good for Israel, while 48 percent disagreed.
However, an unequivocal majority of 79 percent of the pollees believed the deal served Hamas’ interests more than it did Israel’s. Nevertheless, 64 percent said they believe Hamas will not honor the agreement even if Israel does, with only 8.5 percent saying Israel will be the one to violate the truce.